Some Days Are Diamonds
by Bugsta99
Summary: Rose has never been allowed to meet her father, or even know who he is. She has lived with her mother her whole life. But now that she has finished school and has a university degree, she receives an invite from her father, asking her to join him at his estate in Russia. It's an invite that she accepts, completely unsure of what she's walking into. What could possibly go wrong?
1. Chapter 1

**So, first fanfic I've ever written. But seeing as I'm on holidays I thought I'd give it a go. Not really sure where this is going to go, but if you have any ideas let me know. I am always open to them.**

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The rich kid. That's what I was always known as at school, and then again at uni. I did my degree in psychology, with a couple of marketing and business units. I never could figure out where all our money came from when we lived in a small house in a non-descript suburb and my mother didn't really work. I couldn't figure it out until I met dad.

My mother had always told me we weren't allowed to meet until I finished school and then uni. Which had always pissed me off. Its not like she was much of a parent by herself. So I grew up without much of a family, which I voiced my opinion about on many occasions, but she always told me id have time for family later. _Righto._ Time for family later my arse. Everyone deserved to grow up with a family. But after a while I let it go. And accepted that she probably had a reason.

Basically, I left uni and found out who my rich-arse father was. To be quite honest I nearly killed him when I first met him. Standing around in his Armani suite with his bodyguards and all. He'd sent someone to contact me after I graduated uni, the day after actually. The man had turned up looking all pompous in his own suite and tie and all with his ridiculous briefcase. Introducing himself in his all high and mighty voice.

He told me he was looking for one 'Rosemarie Hathaway.' I'd told him to stick it where the sun don't shine and piss off. Anyone who called me that always got the cold shoulder. He knocked again about five minutes later and I left him at the door and told my mother he was there hoping that he would get the message if she told him to leave. But, of course, she let him in and sat him down in the lounge. Then called me back down and made me talk to him. Turned out he was there 'on behalf of 'Abe Mazur'. I snorted at him and told him to get to the point. Mum sighed and told me that I should listen because I'd apparently like what he had to say.

So I sat, and listened as he babbled on about something to do with turkey and Russia and fathers and important people. I didn't really pay much attention because I didn't have a father or any reason to know anything about important people or industries in turkey or Russia.

My ears perked up when he mentioned travelling there though. And I finally asked him something that had been bugging me for a while.

"Who is Abe Mazur?"

"Ibrahim is your father." I jumped when I heard my mothers voice behind me.

"My father who I haven't met or so much as heard from in my entire life?"

"Your father who I told to not contact you until you had an education and a University degree under your belt." I took a minute to consider that one. I'd always wanted to meet my father.

"He has extended an invite for you to go and stay with him at his estate in Russia. And to see his dwelling in Turkey."

"So that's why you always insisted I become fluent in Russian and Turkish?" I asked turning to my mother.

"Yes. I figured you would want to go when he contacted you and thought it would help you to get along with him."

"So why didn't Abe come himself? Why send you?"

"He wanted you to see everything he has to offer you as well as just to meet him." My mother snorted behind me.

"What the man means, Rose. Is that Ibrahim wants to make sure you have to stick around and get to know him before you brush him off and leave him behind." I turned to Abe's 'representative, raisin my eyebrows. He smiled back at me, a bit sheepishly.

"Okay then, what's the worst that can happen? Going to Europe sounds like a fantastic idea to me. It's about time I met my father and found out who he really is. Tell him his invite has been accepted."

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**Please, let me know what you think...**

With acknowledgements to Richelle Mead, Author of the Vampire Academy Series.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is chapter two, hope you like it.**

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**CHAPTER 2**

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To say my father's house was huge would be an understatement. I had never seen something so big. I marvelled as I stepped out of the SUV I'd arrived hear in. it was just me and the man Who'd come to Australia to get me. I still didn't know his name; I'd have to find that out later.

It wasn't long before I noticed a man step out of the front door. He was tall and fairly skinny. He wore a suite, quite a fancy one by the looks of it, but when you look at the house that's not surprising. What intrigued me was the scarf, I had never before seen a man wearing a scarf. But hey! I've never met my father either, or been to Russia. Today seems to be the day for firsts.

The man played with his cufflinks and flicked out his hands to straighten out his jacket. _Tosser. _I thought. He stepped down the front steps of the house and an almost cocky smile appeared on his face. As he got closer to me I assumed he was another one of Abe's 'representatives'. I was, however, completely shocked when he stuck out his hand and introduced himself.

"Abe Mazur." Standing right in front of me was my father. The father my mother had stopped me from meeting up until now. The father I hadn't even seen a photo of up until now. The father I had always wanted to have a relationship with. Well… now was my chance.

"Dad." My voice cracked. The first thing I wanted to do was beat the crap out of him. Mostly for never coming to me before. Even though I knew my mother never let him. But also because he was smiling so bloody much, it was just irritating me. I settled for punching the side of his face. Hard. And, of course his guards pounced.

"Don't." Abe said waving a hand at his guards. "Do we feel better now?" I think I was going to like this guy. I nodded.

"For now." He laughed.

I stuck out my hand towards him. "Rose Hathaway. Its nice to finally meet you Abe." He shook my hand, still with that huge smile on his face.

We stood there watching each other for a few minutes. Sizing each other up. Taking each other in for the very first time. After a while someone cleared their throat. Rather loudly, like they'd already done it multiple times before. both of us turned to see who it was.

Two boys stood there, arms crossed and eyebrows raised, staring at us. They looked only a year or two older than me, maybe more. One of them sported a full head fiery red hair, with beautiful blue eyes. The other had sandy blond hair and hazel eyes. They stood there in jeans and boots with button down shirts and what looked very much like Acubras. _I thought we were in Russia? _

"Ahhh, I was wondering where you two were."

"Just came back form a ride baba, sorry we missed introductions." The redhead announced.

_Baba? Doesn't that mean father? What? _I turned to face them completely.

"Rose Hathaway. Who are you?" The blond one spoke up.

"I'm Eddie, this one over here," He poked a figure at the redhead, "is Mason." Their smiles were almost as big a Abe's.

"Rose," I heard Abe say, almost tentatively, "meet your brothers." _What the hell? _My jaw dropped.

"I-I have brothers?" I said, gob smacked.

"Close your mouth, jeez we aren't that bad." Mason joked, at least I think it was a joke.

"I-I…" I didn't know what to say. Which doesn't happen very often, I am never speechless.

"Come on," the two of them grabbed hold of my arms and began pulling me away, "come meet the family."

I was whisked away to a whole heap of introductions around the house. There was only about ten people but I got completely lost with who was who and what role they played and everything else Mason and Eddie said. I was still processing the fact that I had brothers. I hadn't heard about them before, and they seem older than me so, unless Abe was cheating on my mother, they had to be full brothers. It was going to take a while to digest.

The minute they dragged me out the side door of the house I stopped. I planted my feet on the ground and stared in amazement. Mason and Eddie turned and looked at me in confusion when they realized I'd stopped.

In front of me was the most amazing stable I'd ever seen. Lets face it, it was pretty cliché; red roof, white walls, horses heads sticking out of half doors along the sides, massive big wooden doors at the front. And outdoor arena and a lunging ring, with paddocks as far as the eye could see off to one side and behind. It was the sort of stable I had always dreamed of.

"Wow." Was all I said. I heard Mason chuckle.

"I think she likes it. A horse person are you Rosie?"

"Definitely." I breathed.

Five minutes later I was opening the massive doors to the stable and looking down the line to horses in stalls. I breathed in the familiar scent of horses and hay, I felt like I was home. It didn't matter that I was in unfamiliar territory, in a completely foreign country. Stables were familiar territory no matter where they were, I got the feeling I would be spending a lot of time out here.

I walked down the isle looking around at all the horses. I was vaguely aware of either Eddie and Mason muttering something along the lines of 'we'll leave you to it' and walking out.

As I took in the smells and sounds and sights, one particular horse caught my eye more than the rest. I saw the beautiful brown head tossing back and forth and up and down from about fifteen metres away. I walked up and let myself into the stallions stall. He was the only horse in the stable with a rug on. It wasn't heavy, but it was obviously there to keep him warm. There were bandages on his legs and one on his tail. His mane was smooth and well brushed. It was like he'd been done up for a show, and they were trying to keep him neat and tidy.

I put my hand out to him, letting him get used to my scent before I rubbed my other hand up his neck, so clean and soft.

"And you are?" I jumped at the deep voice behind me. "It is very rude to go letting yourself into a stable that not yours." The voice was accented, and very, very

I turned to see the most beautiful man I had ever seen. There, just outside the stunning stallion's stall, stood a god, he must have been 6 foot six or seven, beautiful brown hair fell to his shoulders. He was covered in sweat, and damn it was sexy. He stood there is his jeans and tight shirt that showed off every muscle he had, and boy was there quite a few, his arms were crossed across his muscled chest and his face didn't look all that happy.

When I failed to answer his question, he coughed, rather loudly, and raised an eyebrow.

"Jeez what is it with you people." I muttered before sticking out my hand and introducing myself. "Rose Hathaway; Abe Mazur's daughter."

The man's attitude changed instantly, form standoffish to polite and welcoming, he chuckled and shook my hand, "Dimitri Belikov, I run the stables round here. Nice to finally meet you; Mason and Eddie haven't shut up about your upcoming arrival for weeks."

"I see…" I said slowly. "So what's with the bandages and stuff on this guy?" I asked motioning to the stallion.

Dimitri laughed again, "Abe said he was to be kept neat and tidy and looking his best. He's an Australian Stock Horse. Mountain Bred apparently, damn good horse if you ask me. But if you are who you say you are, he's yours."

My jaw fell open for the second time since I arrived, and once again, I was speechless. _What is this place doing to me? _"Mine?"

"Yep, all yours, for pleasure, work or showing, whatever you want to do with him." He slapped the horses neck and began walking away, no doubt to get something organized or finish the job he had previously been doing. "Just look after him."

That was certainly not what I had expected when I agreed to come out here. I guess my mother was right, Abe really did want me to stay, and quite frankly, I think he was going to get his wish.

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**Don't forget to let me know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, so here you go, I apologise for how long it took me. So, without further adieu, here is chapter three...**

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"So, Rosemarie, what would you like to do while you're here?" Abe said as we sat round the table in his massive dining room. The table was quite ridiculous really; it would probably seat at least thirty people. It was one of those really long ones. I was tempted to ask if we could sit at each end and shout at each other, but I held my tongue, for now. I still planned on doing that one day.

"Rosemarie?" I asked, not listening to the rest of what he was saying.

"It is you're name, is it not?" he asked. Mason and Eddie snorted; the three of us had a conversation about this before, it was quite entertaining.

"Yes, I suppose that is true," I said pushing my food around for a second before continuing, "If you like having your nose broken." I brought my fork to my mouth and took a bite. Abe froze beside me.

"Is there anything in particular that you would prefer?"

"Rose is good." I said chirpily, as I turned my head and gave him one of my biggest smiles. He smiles back and shakes his head, before speaking up again.

"So, _Rose, _what would you like to do while you're here?"

"I think I would like to spend some time with your lovely selection of horses, and do some work."

"Some work?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I have a psychology degree. I want to do something with it. Or with the marketing and business units I did." Abe stopped and stared at me. And then started laughing. I looked around at Eddie and Mason, but they just shrugged.

"I'm terribly sorry," Abe began once his laughing subsided, "I have just never would have expected you to answer like that. I did not expect for you to want to work when you got here." I couldn't help but chuckle, until I heard him mumble something along the lines of 'I've never seen your mother work a day in her life.' And my smile dropped.

"She is not that bad, she raised me didn't she?" I saw a smile creep onto his face once again.

"That she did little girl, that she did. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Whatever you say, _old man_." I wasn't sure how well my comment would go down with him. I especially doubted it would end well when I heard Mason and Eddie gasp. But, in spite of what I thought he would do, Abe, once again, burst into laughter.

The rest of our dinner went well; I got to know my dad and brothers better, for which I was grateful. And I was informed about the many ins and outs of how the place works. Which I'll be honest, I tuned out for most of, but I was sure that if it was important I'd be able to learn it later.

Three hours later Mason showed me to his room. He told me where his and Eddie's rooms were just in case I needed anything, then led me down the hall to my new room.

I said thank you to Mason and opened the door. What I was expecting to be a room was more like an apartment. It had a bedroom with an amazing ensuite. Not that I was the type of girl to spend hours in a bathroom, but it was still, for want of a better word, nice. There was also what I guess you would call a sitting room in a place like this. There was a very comfortable looking, yet stylish four-seater couch on one wall with assorted seats around it.

I quickly decided I liked the place. Even though the décor was not quite my style, it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by the addition of my saddle and other tack from home mixed with a bit of leather here and there and maybe a cow skin on the floor. Not to mention my four-poster bed, which I'd made back in Australia. The bed, now that I thought about it, could probably be expanded now, since this place was so much bigger; a double bed would fit. Of course this was all assuming I stayed, which, I must admit, was more than likely, now that I'd met my dad and knew I had brothers.

After twenty minutes or so of looking around and picturing what it could look like, I made my way to the bedroom, where someone had, at some stage, put my duffle bag. I grabbed my macbook out of the bag and sat on the bed to write some more of the book I'd started a few years ago. I actually started it in high school, so it was almost done.

It didn't take me long, though, to start feeling lonely. I had never even left Australia before I came here, I'd barely even left the state. And now I was in an entirely new country with new people, and, as much as I hated to admit it, I missed my mother. So I tried ringing her, three times, but like always, she didn't pick up. I don't know why I missed her, we never exactly got on, but I guess she was familiar.

I sat there for a while wallowing in my loneliness until I eventually remembered what Mason had said earlier; _If you need anything, don't hesitate to come get me_. I'd always wanted a brother I could go to. But would he find it weird if I went to him and told him I was lonely? I mean, we'd hit it off quite well before, but what if…

I cut myself off. _What other options do you have Rose? Are you just going to lie here all night crying? Didn't you do enough of that in Australia?_ I dragged myself off the bed and padded down the hallway, coming to a stop a Mason's door. I knocked. _This is a stupid idea Rose, he's just going to think you're weird._

I was just about to turn and go back to my room when I heard him say, "Come in!" I opened the door to see Mason sitting on the couch with his feet up on a coffee table reading a book. He looked up and put his book down when he saw it was me. "Hey Rosie, what can I do for you?"

I went and sat down next to him. "I…" I burst into tears.

"Hey, hey, don't cry Rosie, it's alright." He put his arms around me and pulled me into his side, rubbing my arm and then patting my hair in an effort to reassure me. It only made me cry harder. This was the first time in my life I had ever had a shoulder to cry on, the first time I had ever had someone wrap their arms around me and tell me it was alright. No one had ever really been there for me, but in this moment I felt like I had someone, and it was the best feeling ever.

My tears slowly stopped, but not once did Mason let me go, he didn't ask any questions either. He just sat there with me, made sure I had someone there. And I am pretty sure that, had I wanted to talk, he would've listened, without judging me.

I must've fallen asleep because I woke upon the same couch but with a pillow under my head and a blanket draped over me. I looked at the clock on the wall – 0545. Yay. I got up anyway and went downstairs, not bothering to change out of the jeans and shirt I'd worn last night. I got to the kitchen and saw Eddie making coffee.

"Hey Rose." He looked me up and down. "Do you always sleep in what you wear during the day or did you get laid last night?" he said it with a perfectly straight face and cracked a smiled once he finished.

"Nope, I usually sleep in my normal clothes; can't usually be bothered changing." I grinned at him and started making myself a hot chocolate.

"Fair enough, but why are you up so early?"

"Eh, I woke up and figured I might as well get up. Where's Mase?"

"He's out feeding horses." I finished my hot chocolate and started towards the door. "Oh," Eddie stopped me, and handed me a cup of coffee, "and give this to Belikov, I assume you would have met him last night, he's usually hanging 'round making sure everything is in order."

"Okay," I said as I went for the door for a second time.

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**Anything you have to say, I want to hear it; the more reviews I get, no matter what they say, the more likely I am to update sooner, maybe even by tomorrow night...**

**Oh, and if there is anything you want to see happen or anything, review and tell me about it, and I'll see what I can do.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So here is chapter four. It's quite short but it just seemed like a good place to end the chapter.**

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CHAPTER 4

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I made it out to the stable and found Mason brushing down one of the horses.

"Hey Mase," I said as I leant on one of the half doors. He turned around when he heard me, laying his arm over his horse's withers to stop her from walking off.

"Hey Rosie! You feeling better this morning?" he asked smiling.

"Yeah… um… thank you for last night, I didn't really know if you were going to be okay with me coming to you or not…" I trailed off, looking down at my shoes.

"Of course, any time." His smile grew, if that was even possible. "From what I've heard you didn't have much in Australia. I know what our mother is like, and Dad said you didn't really have many friends either, so unless you have a real caring boyfriend, we were sort of expecting you to come to one of us eventually."

"Thank you, Mason. I know I've already said that but it really does mean a lot to me."

"It's what family is for Rosie; we've always done it for each other, and now we'll do it for you too. You are our family and we will look after you for as long as you chose to stay. Hell, we'll look after you of you chose not to stay too." I was almost in tears, I stepped forward and hugged him as best I could with coffee and hot chocolate in my hand and he hugged me back.

"Anyway," I said pulling back and holding up Dimitri's coffee, "Have you seen Dimitri? This is for him."

"You made Belikov coffee?"

"No, Eddie did, I'm just the delivery girl."

"Ahhh Eddie, he always did have something against the man. He's down that way." He said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. "Did Dad tell you about the stallion he brought in for you?"

"Dimitri did…"

"Oh good, you'll need to break him in, he's never even been brushed before, believe it or not. He was all quiet yesterday after being flown in, but good luck sis, turns out he's quite flighty. Belikov is actually trying to bring him back in now, got out last night."

"Thank you." With that I walked off in the direction Mason pointed me in. As I walked out the back barn door I realised just how important it was to have a paddock attached to the barns – for when horses escaped. I looked around to find my stallion and stopped dead in my tracks.

Standing out in the paddock, in jeans, boots and an Acubra, shirtless, was Dimitri Belikov. It was the sort of sight you'd expect to see on a farm up north in Australia, he was all tanned muscle, glistening with sweat. _Good lord._ I watched as he shook his head at my prancing stallion and started walking back to ward the barn. I jumped and nearly wore his coffee when he called my name.

"Th-this is for you." I said holding out his coffee. _What is wrong with you Rose!? Get it together!_

"Thank you." He said, nodding his head and taking it from me. "That's one hell of a stallion you've got there. I wish you luck with him. He's a handful, got out last night, won't come back in."

"Here, hold this." I passed my hot chocolate to him and walked off into the paddock, out towards my stallion. I approached him carefully, making sure to not make myself appear a threat, and got up to him within minutes. I took hold of his halter and led him back towards the barn. Dimitri was staring at me like I had to heads or something.

I let go of the halter as I took back my hot chocolate. I smiled and went to take a sip but before I could I had a head over my shoulder and a nose in my mug. I laughed. _Cheeky bugger. _I pulled my mug a way and drank some myself. I walked into the barn followed by the stallion and Dimitri, who was still shirtless. I stopped outside the one stall with a back name sign and let the stallion in. I was about to say something to Dimitri but before I could a heard Eddie yell out.

"Put a shirt on if you're hanging 'round my sister Belikov!" Dimitri laughed at reached for the shirt hanging from his back pocket. _No! Please don't! _He stopped, and raised an eyebrow at him.

"What was that Rose?"

"Oh my god, did I just say that out loud? Oh I am such an idiot. I can't believe I just said that. You probably have a girlfriend and… Oh my god I should shut up now." Dimitri was staring at me, looking quite amused.

"You aren't an idiot Rose." He pulled his shirt on and turned to walk away. "Oh, and Rose?"

My eyes widened. "Yes?"

"I don't have girlfriend." He smiled and walked off, leaving me to berate myself for making myself look so stupid. I buried my face in my stallions shoulder and hid from the world for a few minutes.

I spent the rest of the morning bonding with my stallion and deciding on a name for him. When I eventually decided on Max, I pulled out my pocket knife and engraved it into his name plate.

I also decided that I wanted to stay. I wanted to build a life with my family. I wanted to experience life with people who cared. To make friends, and enjoy life the way I'd always wanted to.

But I was facing a problem. Even though I'd always been good with horses, I'd only ever really ridden 4 or 5 times, excluding riding my Aunty's horse a few time when I was six and seven. And now I had this young, flighty stallion who I needed to break in. But, of course, my pride wouldn't let me ask for help. I was determined to do this myself. I mean, I'd read enough to have a vague idea of what I could do. But I suppose I could just make it up as I went along, it's what I'd done with everything else I'd ever done…

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**Don't forget to leave a review.**

**And for any beta readers who are interested, I am looking for a beta reader for this story...**


	5. Chapter 5

**I think you guys will enjoy this one...**

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CHAPTER 5

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I knocked on the door of Abe's office, hoping he was in and not to busy.

"Come in." I heard him call. I opened the door and stepped forward to take in the expensively decked out office. "Ahh, Rose, please, come sit." He gestured to the seats in front of his huge oak desk. I quietly walked in and sat down.

"Can I talk to you about something?" I asked tentatively, unsure about asking him what I wanted to.

"Of course you can! What's on your mind?"

"I-" I wasn't quite sure how I was going to say it. "I was wondering if staying here was an option, for me." Abe looked quite surprised, which made me more nervous.

"You want to stay here? With us? In Russia?"

"I would like to, yes. If it's an option that is." He leaned forward and put his elbows on his desk.

"Of course it's an option Rose. We don't turn away family here. You are welcome to stay as long as you like."

"Really?" I don't know why, but I was a bit shocked. I almost expected him to turn me away now that he'd met me. But maybe that was lack of experience with families.

"Really. Get to know the people, find a friend or two, go into town and look around."

"So I can bring my stuff from Australia?" I asked excitedly.

"Go for it little one." He smiled at me again.

"Oh, and one more question. Do you have a shed?" His eyebrow shot up, asking me to further explain. "As in like a tool shed. I made my bed for myself in Australia, but if I bring it over here I would like to expand it, so I no longer have to sleep in a single bed. I mean, I've got most of what I'll need back in Australia, I think, but I would just need the space to put them to use."

"Ohhh, of course." His smile widened. "We don't have one as such, but I'm sure we can find you one to use." He paused to think about his next sentence. "Now, did Mason and Eddie show you your present? The stallion?"

"I actually met him yesterday when I got here. Mase and Eddie showed me the stables, and I just sort of wandered around, before I found the stallion and went in to say hello. Belikov nearly dragged me out when he found me. Before I told him who I was. I spent the morning with the stallion this morning."

"So you met Belikov as well? Quite the man… About your age is he not?" Abe mused. _Where is he going with this? _

"Yeeesssss… I've met him. He seems like a nice guy. As for his age, I have no idea…"

"Mmmm," he seemed a bit far away for a minute, "Anyway, speaking of nice people, we have dinner guests tonight. You might want to go into town for something to wear." I looked at him, trying to figure out whether or not he was serious. I was pretty sure he was.

"You know, last time someone told me to go into town to but something nice for dinner I came with a pair of moleskins, a new Acubra and a check shirt." I smirked at him. He shook his head.

"Right then." He stood up and shuffled something on his desk before turning back to me. "I see you are going to fit in here very well." I snorted.

"So you aren't going to make me wear a dress?" I asked skeptically; my mother would have made me.

"Goodness, no. The dinner guests are coming to meet you and so that you can start to build your own network of people around here. You might as well look like yourself." He started to walk towards the door, I stood up and followed.

"So if they were here for any other reasons you would make me wear a dress?"

"Let me put it this way," he began before opening the door, "if you ever turn up to a business dinner in moleskins with holes in them, or holes in anything for that matter, without a damn good reason, then yes, I would probably give you a dress to wear instead. But other than that, no, you will never be expected to 'dress to impress' unless you want to."

"I am so very glad to hear that, I'm glad we've cleared it up."

"So am I. Now, would you like coffee? Hot chocolate perhaps?"

"Now that I think about it I could go a hot chocolate yes, thank you."

I followed Abe out into the kitchen and watched as he made coffee and hot chocolate. We stood around the kitchen counter for the next hour or two chatting about things until he got a phone call and had to go back to his office. I just went to my room and continued with my book.

Three hours and one more chapter later I gave up on my book, saved it and got up to change out of my dirty clothes. I put on the cleanest, neatest looking button up shirt I could find in my bag, my favourite pair of moleskins, which, I'll admit, weren't exactly pristine either but they didn't look dirty. Lastly, I dug out some thick socks and pulled on my Ariat boots. I walked out of my rooms and put my hair up in a bun on my way down the stairs, patting the top of my head to make sure it wasn't too scruffy.

When I reached the living room I heard the doorbell ring.

"I'll get it!" I yelled as I turned towards the front door. 30 seconds later I pulled it open ready to happily greet whoever was there. Instead, I froze. Standing at the door in boots jeans and a navy blue button up with sleeves rolled up to his elbows looking sexy as ever was the one and only Dimitri Belikov.

"Good lord." I muttered under my breath before clearing my throat and, a little louder, saying, "Hi, please, come in. I was really hoping I wasn't going to have to see him so soon after making myself look like such an idiot in front of him, but, I'll take what I can get. I looked behind him to find two women with him, as they walked in the door Dimitri introduced us.

The first one was the oldest, she looked to be in her 40's and was quite short, Dimitri introduced her as his mother, Olena. The second one I met see to be just a little younger than me, she was very pretty and looked a lot like Dimitri, he introduced her as his younger sister, Viktoria. I received hugs from both of the women, they were very affectionate people apparently. It was a little weird, considering I'd never met them before, but hey. I got the feeling I was going to get on well with them. Dimitri told me he had two other sisters as well, but they weren't all that keen on coming tonight, and had to stay home and look after kids. I shrugged and replied appropriately, I figured three of them were going to be enough to start with.

"It's so nice to finally meet you Rose. Abe talks about you a lot. He is so happy to finally have you here. You are staying right?" I was a little taken aback by her forwardness but I answered her regardless.

"Yes, I am staying, I am going to organise to bring all my stuff over from Australia tomorrow with Abe."

"Yay!" Viktoria jumped up and down on the spot. "You should come riding with us one day! You do ride right?" I had to laugh at how eager she was.

"Of course I ride." I was about to say something else when I was interrupted by my brother coming up behind me.

"Alright you lot, enough harassing my sister, come through and talk to the rest of us too." I turned to see Mason finish his sentence with the biggest grin on his face. I also caught a quick gasp from Viktoria before she ran up to him and kissed him. _What? _Their kiss lasted about ten seconds before Dimitri cleared his throat uncomfortably. They separated and Viktoria turned to face us leaning back into Mason who had a goofy grin on his face.

"Oh Dimka, you're just jealous that you won't be getting any tonight." Dimitri and I both choked on the air we were breathing. Olena just patted our shoulders chuckling and muttering something about how Viktoria shouldn't be antagonising her brother or me.

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**Please review, I think I will refrain from posting my next chapter until I get 25 of them.**


	6. Chapter 6

**So, here is chapter six. I'm sorry for the wait and for the lack of dialogue; I know some of you wanted some more in this chapter. But I felt that this was important in order to get a better idea of where Rose is coming from and why she disliked living in Australia so much and why her life there is such a touchy subject. So there is a bit of important character building is this chapter...**

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**CHAPTER 6**

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"So, Rose, you're from Australia?" Olena asked as we sat 'round the table at dinner.

"Yes, from the suburbs of Perth in WA. And I always dreamed of coming here."

"Why didn't you come earlier?" I knew these were innocent questions, but they were hitting some sore spots.

"Wasn't allowed to get a job, so I couldn't afford the travel and accommodation."

"You couldn't come stay with your father?" she turned to Abe and whacked his shoulder, "Why didn't you let her come and stay with you?" His face twisted into a guilty expression, but he stayed quiet.

"I didn't even know who he was until a few days ago, let alone where he lived. An to be honest I just assumed he lived in Australia, out on a farm somewhere maybe. But my mother wouldn't let me know Abe, not until I got my degree."

"You have a degree?" Viktoria piped in.

"Yeah, I have my doctorate in Psychology. My mother organised for me to do the majority of it quicker than most, I now understand how she did that." I looked at Abe. "To be honest I hated her for it at the time, but now I'm glad, meant I got to get out of there sooner."

"So you're a doctor?" Mason asked in surprise. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes, I suppose I am. But anyway, enough about me, what do you lot do?" I asked, looking around the table with a wide smile.

"I am a nurse, not that we have a hospital here in Baia." I'd forgotten Abe lived in a small town.

"Well then, I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other, I knew every single one of the nurses in all the emergency rooms in Perth by the time I left. Much to my mother's disgust. I have a tendency to hurt myself." The whole room burst into laughter.

The rest of dinner went pretty smoothly. I'll admit, I avoided Dimitri for most of it, but I got to know Viktoria, who I liked. I got the feeling that I might have found a friend in her. I watched Olena and how she interacted with her son and daughter and found myself getting a little bit jealous. I had never had anything like that. They got on so well. They cared for each other. Their banter was such an incredible thing to watch. Even Eddie and Mason joined in on it, much to my surprise.

By the time the Belikovs, well, Olena and Dimitri were leaving I found that jealousy coming back; they had a home to go back to, somewhere full of loving family. I mean, I sort of had that now but it had only been a few days, I needed time to settle in. but these guys had had it their whole lives, and even though I hate to acknowledge the jealousy, I had to admit it was there.

Viktoria stayed, much to her Dimitri and my disgust. I wished I'd had a brother like she did a few years ago. But instead of making a massive fuss and punching something, or someone, or curling up in a corner of my room with a scotch bottle drowning out the depression that was forcing its way into my head, I went to bed and wrote. It was my way of dealing with things, when I didn't have anything to hit, I wrote everything down. I had a massive collections of things I'd written over the years.

I lasted about half an hour typing away on my laptop before I was interrupted by a scream that was quickly muffled, and then a very loud groan. _Good lord._ The last thing I needed to hear was my new found brother going at it. So, before I heard anything more, I grabbed my bag and tipped what remained in it out on my bed, quickly finding what I was after. I grabbed the bottle of scotch and walked as quickly as I could out of my room and then the house.

I felt the tears running down my face as I popped the cork lid of the bottle and placed it in my pocket. I took a mouthful as I walked into the stables and sat down in the nearest out-of-the-way corner I found. I felt the depression really kicking in as I sat in the corner, hugging my knees and drinking from the bottle. I'd be the fist one to admit that alcohol wasn't the best way to deal with it, but it was what I had found worked reasonably well, for a while, back in Australia. This time though, as I looked at the now half-empty bottle, I realised it wasn't working. All I wanted to do was hot something, take out all my emotions on something, physically.

I sat there, thinking about my option, well thinking as best I could with my foggy brain. After a while, I remembered the knife I always kept in my back pocket. It was a cowards way out but it could work. End it here and I'd never have to deal with the crap again. I'd never be jealous of other people families again. I wouldn't have to even look at them.

I put down my bottle and dug the knife out. I cut through my jeans, giving myself access to the skin about my femoral artery. A smile grew on my face as I pierced my skin with the razor sharp blade. I couldn't really feel much through the half bottle of scotch, but I could certainly feel it when the knife was ripped from my hand and thrown several feet away.

"Rose!" I heard someone say. But I was too consumed in the fact that someone had taken my knife to really register it. I scrambled to get up and grab the blade but someone took hold of my shoulders and pushed me back into the wall. I found against the hands with everything I could, this had to end now, I couldn't keep going, I couldn't keep dealing with everything, I just couldn't.

So I fought. I fought as hard as I could, which probably wasn't very hard considering the amount of alcohol I had running through my system. I let the person holding me back have it all; they weren't going to keep me away from my chance to get out.

After a while I thought I was going to be free, I could feel the arms letting go slightly, so I pushed against them as hard as I could. Only to find myself on the ground, my entire body covered with something warm and hard. I was still vaguely aware o someone calling my name.

I stopped, I gave up. The warmth above me was not letting me move, it wasn't going to let me anywhere near my way out. It was going to keep me here. Once again, I was going to be holed up, with nowhere to go and no way out. Once again, someone had taken away my only chance. Once again I was going to be forced to drown in my depression, with no one there to help me. I would go back to the way I always was, maybe in the new place I would get some more good days, maybe I would find someone who would help me, hold me and let me cry and tell me it was going to be okay. Maybe for once in my life I wouldn't be alone.

Who was I kidding? I was lying on the ground in a stable being held down by someone who wasn't letting me go anywhere. I felt the tears return with full force as the world closed back in around me. The cold hard floor, the warm, hard body on top of me. _Who was that exactly?_ The alcohol fog still clouded my brain but I was pretty sure I was coming back up from the depressive low. Then it hit me.

The person on top of me had just save my life. They had just saved me from myself. And they were still calling my name, or something similar anyway, I couldn't quite figure it out.

I forced myself to calm down, to stop the tears, and to look the person who had just saved my life in the eye, and say thank you to them. Which I instantly regretted… I looked up through the tears only to be met by a pair of chocolate brown eyes full of concern. I froze, the word on my lips retreated back into my mouth. The Russian on top of me slowly began to get off, pulling me with him to sit back against the wall. He picked up the half full bottle, and, much to my dismay, took a swig himself.

"So," He began. "I am considering two options here." I raised my eyebrows, confused as to where he was going with this. "You either can't hold your liquor very well and do stupid thing when you're drunk, which, considering how lucid you seem to be, I don't think in the case. Or-" I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off. "Or, you can hold your liquor extremely well, and there is something else going on here." He took another drink and looked at me expectantly.

I didn't know what to say. I knew I had to say something, but I just didn't know what. This man that I barely knew had just found me at one of my lowest of low points and saved my life. He had just saved my life and was now sitting next to me drinking, and casually talking about what just happened.

I knew nothing about him and I really had yet to decide whether or not I could trust him yet I wanted to tell him everything. But could I?

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**Please review, tell me if you thought it was good or bad or rubbish, I promise there will be much happier moments in the next chapter or the one after at the latest...**


	7. Chapter 7

**So, here is chapter 7. And i apologise for any mistakes, I am still looking for a beta.**

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CHAPTER 7

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"You know you don't have to tell me. But I am here to listen if you ever need someone to talk to, or take things out on. I can at least hold my own if you attack me. Unlike your leg over here." He knew the situation wasn't funny, but he was trying to make me feel comfortable with him, which I really appreciated.

"Its just that…" I felt myself begin to shake. "I have never had anyone do that for me. The last time I got that bad my mother picked me up by my arm, threw me in the car, got shitty at me for bleeding on her seats, dragged me into the emergency room, then turned around and left. Not to mention the massive lecture I got about getting blood in the grout of the tiles in the bathroom."

I looked up at Dimitri, fully expected him to tell me I was overreacting, only to be met with eyes full of surprise and then concern.

"How does a parent do that? I am surprised you stayed with her."

"Tried running, got dragged back and locked in my room for a week." He didn't say anything in reply, instead he just waited for me to continue.

"It all started around the beginning of year eleven, my best friend and her family were killed. That's when the depression set in. It wasn't all that bad to begin with, but it got worse over time. Eventually, it got to the point where my mother wouldn't acknowledge that it was there and she treated me like I was just a teenager who'd gone off the rails." Hot tears ran down my cheeks as Dimitri pulled me closer to him in support.

"In my last year of Uni I sort of realised that soon I would be free, and allowed to get a job and get out into the world. Of course I still didn't make many friends because I still missed my friend from high school. But I began to be happier and the depression got better. I still drowned my sorrows in scotch, but most of the time it worked. Then I came here, and I thought I would get better, that having family would help, but obviously it won't." Dimitri stopped me there, he stood up and reached out his hand to me. I took his hand and stood with him.

"Do not judge yourself on three days of being with people who car for you. It takes time to get used to it. It takes time to fix these things. You will heal here, I am sure of it, but sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. Sometimes being jealous of other's families helps to bring you closer to your own. But don't be too hard on yourself, you are allowed to lose it every now and then, everyone is." He sounded like some sort of zen instructor.

"Thank you, for listening, for saving my life, I am in your debt." Dimitri smiled at me as I took my scotch bottle back and put the lid back on. He bent down and picked up my knife as well.

"Any time Roza, anytime. And I hope you know, that I will not tell anyone about this, but if it happens too often I will have to tell your father." He hesitantly handed my knife over to me.

"I know, but I will do my utmost to not let it happen again."

"I am sure you will, Roza. But for now, come with me, I will stitch up that cut and you can find some new jeans that aren't covered in blood."

DIMITRI POV

I lay in my bed the morning after I found Rose in the stables. It was difficult for me to watch her last night. I would never have believed anyone who said anything about Rose being like that. Not that I had anything against it, it was just difficult to take in. Rose was so happy the day I met her, so snarky and almost bubbly. It had been such a huge turn around.

"Dimka!" I head my mother shout from downstairs. "Are you here?"

I rolled over on my bed to look at me alarm clock, only to see 0800 flashing back at me in the obnoxiously bright green colour. I swore, rather loudly in Russian and jumped out of bed, grabbing my jeans and shirt as I flew out my bedroom door.

I pulled on the jeans as I stumbled down the stairs, and almost fell on my face at the bottom before my sister caught me and steadied me. I continued to run through the house, tucking my shirt into my back pocket; I would only end up taking it off again later.

As I got to the kitchen mama was just putting down the phone. She looked up at me.

"Dimka, why are you still here? Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"Yes, mama, I am. I lost track of the time." With nothing more than a wave I flew out the front door and started running towards the Mazur's estate.

After about five minutes of flat out running I reached the stables, and came face to face with Mazur himself.

"Ahhhhh, Belikov. Why so late this morning." I was about to come up with some sort of lame excuse, like over sleeping or something when Rose came up behind him and spoke.

"Baba, don't give the poor guy so much trouble, he obviously has his reasons. And unless it becomes a frequent thing, I don't think he should have to share them."

Mazur didn't look convinced, but, thanks to his daughter, he let it go. I was glad I didn't have to say anything.

"Anyway," Mazur turned back to me. "I would appreciate it if you would take Rose out riding today. Her brothers are unavailable for the time being and she doesn't know the area, nor is she particularly versed in the art of riding." Rose looked like she was about to make some kind of remark, but she bit her tongue.

"I would be happy to, Mr. Mazur." He gave a disapproving grunt before turning and seeping out of the stable.

"How dare he?" Rose started. "He has no idea about my riding ability. I am more than capable. And someone from rural Australia does not get lost in the bush."

"Rural? I though you were from the suburbs." She didn't look very happy but I was very curious.

"I lived in the country until I was eight." For some reason, that didn't surprise me very much.

"Well then, lets see what you can do."

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**Please don't forget to review, I find it much motivation in them, seeing as a struggle with motivation for everything I do. **

**Also, I am still looking for a beta, so if you know of a good one, or you are one, please let me know.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry for the wait again guys, but anyway, enjoy. If you want to, I mean, if you don't want to enjoy it thats cool to. :)**

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**CHAPTER EIGHT**

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I watched Rose as she cantered ahead of me with the beautiful Gypsy Vanner she'd chosen to ride for the time being. To be honest I expected her to go for a thoroughbred or quarter horse or something similar, but I suppose her choice made sense. Beautiful horse for a beautiful woman. _Seriously Belikov? She is your bosses daughter, you can't think like that! _

I shook my head and asked my horse to catch up to her. It didn't take long for she was cantering right beside the Gypsy Vanner. I signalled to Rose to slow down and we both slowed to a walk.

"I have something I want to show you." I told her before taking off at a trot towards the hilltop that looked out over not only the estate but the surrounding lands as well.

It took us about ten minutes to get to the place, and when we did, Rose's mouth fell open.

"Close your mouth Rose, it very unbecoming." She snapped it shut and turned to me.

"It's absolutely stunning."

"Yes, yes it is. I come up here when I need to think, or when I feel alone." Did I really just say that? I never say things like that!

"Seems very much like a place to come when you're battling any sort of problem." Rose mused, staring off at the scenery. I nodded in agreement and we fell silent for a few minutes, leaving each other to our own thoughts. It was Rose who eventually broke the comfortable silence.

"Thank you, for last night."

"I-" she interrupted me before I could ay anything.

"I know I have already said that, but I don't think I will ever be able to repay you. I think I will able to build I life for myself; a happy one. And last night… you stopped me from letting myself take the opportunity to do that. So I really can't thank you enough."

"Everyone needs someone Roza, very few can go through life completely alone. And I think that if I can help you then I will not hesitate to do so. And I truly mean that. Everyone deserves someone."

"You'd be that someone for me?" I wasn't sure where she was going with this, so I tried to answer carefully.

"Of course I would Roza, though I think you should let your family in as well. They will help you too if you let them, they are truly amazing people."

"Thank you, again. I don't know if I'll be able to tell my family any time soon, but I think I will try."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"We should head back, give these guys something to eat." She told me, rubbing her horse's neck.

We took our time on the ride back. Walking at a slow pace and taking nearly an hour to reach the stables again. after spending half an hour mucking out the horses stalls and feeding them, I sat down to polish a saddle, Rose leaning against a wall behind me.

"So, you don't have a girlfriends?" Was she just curious or was she asking because she was interested? _Snap out of it Belikov! You cant go there! _

"No, i don't, I never have. i have always had to work and never really wanted the responsibility of looking after someone, ore the added need to make them happy."

"So you don't want a girlfriend?" She sounded a bit taken aback and almost disappointed.

"It might be nice, but I couldn't handle the obligation at them moment; I already have too many women in my life." I heard her let out a small chuckle.

"Obligation? You mean obligation to look after your girlfriend? I don't know how it works here, but back in Australia things seem to be a bit different. Women look after their men; doing what they can to make their lives easier. All we ask for in return is a bit of understanding and someone who is there for us when we need a shoulder to cry on or someone to listen to us when we have pity parties. We even entertain you when you come home at night. A fair few people say that a real Australian woman is very good when it comes to nighttime entertainment." She stopped, her face scrunching into and expression that suggested she couldn't believe what she had just said. So I decided to push it, just a little bit. I turned around from the saddle I was polishing.

"Oh? And do they hold up that reputation?" I don't know what I was expecting, but I certainly did not expect her reaction.

"I have no idea, though I have always wanted to get up close and personal with another woman. But I was always to afraid to with my mother and all." _She's gay!?_ _Oh good lord I like a girl who isn't even interested in men._

I must have had a strange expression on my face because she laughed at me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You aren't interested in men?" I stuttered out making her laugh even harder.

"Of course I am. Sheesh. Why else would I am let it slip that I didn't want you to put your shirt back on the other day? I was just messing with you."

Then she did something that surprised the hell out of me. She leaned down and kissed me full on the lips. As unexpected as it was, it was amazing. She pulled away and took a step back, looking at her boots. My mind spun as I looked for something to say. After about ten seconds though, I gave up.

"Screw it." I mumbled. I stood up quickly and kissed her back. She was surprised at first but soon snapped out of it and I felt her lips move against mine, sending shivers down my spine. Very, very good shivers. Her hands made their way up to grasp each other behind my neck as I slid mine around her waist.

Rose was the first to break the kiss. We stood there arms around each other as we caught our breath. After a few minutes I stepped back saying "I should go."

I turned and walked towards the stable exit, leaving behind the unfinished saddle and one of the most beautiful women I had ever met.

I couldn't go there, as much as i desperately wanted to. She was my boss's daughter. Speaking of, Mazur was going to kill me. He would probably fore me. Oh shit, _shit, shit!_

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**ROSE**

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I stood, staring after Dimitri as he headed towards the door. That was one hell of a first kiss I hand just experienced. But was I that bad? Bad enough to make him runaway form me?

I sighed and sat down to finish the saddle he's been polishing. I suppose I would have to talk to him tomorrow, If he came of course.

I went back to Mason's room that night. I couldn't sleep because of the images for my encounter with Dimitri earlier. So I wen tot Mason hoping he would be able to help me figure it out.

I knocked on the door and took a step back as i waited for an answer. I heard shuffling and a few muted swear words before Mase swung he door open. His hair was all tousled looked like he had just thrown on a pair of jean as he got to the door. Suddenly it dawned on me…

"Am I interrupting something? Oh go, if I am I'll just go back to my for and come talk to you tomorrow, I am so sorry." I turned to go back to my room.

"No, no, it's cool. Come on in.

Mason swung the door a bit wider and I hesitantly walked in, just as Viktoria was coming out of the bedroom looking equally as messy as Mase. _Oh crap I did interrupt something._

"Oh hey Rose."Viktoria said as she walked over to Mason, reaching down to his crotch. I heard a zipping sound and then she giggled before whispering something something in his ear. He looked very uncomfortable and proceeded to sit down on his couch. I followed suit, sitting across from him.

"So, whats up Rosie?" I looked at him and it took me a minute before i said anything.

"I dod something really stupid today."

"It wouldn't happen to have something to do with my brother would it?" Viktoria asked.

"Ahhhh, why?" I said uncomfortably._ Did he tell her?_

"Oh, no reason, she paused, "He just came home early and wasting very strange this afternoon."

I tried to keep the guilty look off my face, but failed miserably. Mason looked concerned and turned to Viktoria.

"Do you want to go get some hot chocolate Vika? I think we might need it." She nodded and took off to to get hot chocolate. Mason turned back to me, still looking very concerned.

"What did you do?"

"I, ahhh…"I wasn't sure how to say it to him. _ Just say it!_ "I may or may not have kissed him…"

"And?" He asked, sensing there was more.

"And he looked confused, then said 'screw it', and kissed me back."

Mase looked very surprised. "So you managed to get close enough to Belikov to kiss him. And, not only that, but he then kissed you back, and you're saying you did something stupid? Why exactly was that stupid?"

"Because he ran away. Well, technically he walked away, but that's even worse!" Made looked like he was trying to hide a small, then burst out laughing.

"It's not funny Mason!" I said. He calmed down a little, but was still chuckling.

"I'm sorry, i just never thought would ever have a sister coming to me with guy problems." Viktoria, of course, chose that moment to reenter the room. After placing the hot chocolates on the coffee table she slapped Mason on the shoulder.

"Why are you laughing Mason? That's a horrible thing do when someone comes to you with problems1!"

"She kissed your brother, who kissed her back and then walked away from her and she is saying she has done something stupid!"

"Hmmm, that would explain the 'Mazur is going to kill me' when he got home…" Viktoria muttered. "But Mason! That is not funny!"

"Guys I am still here." They turned back to me, Mase looking like a puppy that had just been told off and Viktoria smiling widely.

"So, you and my brother aye? I snorted.

"I wish, but apparently, he is too worried about my father…" I trailed off. But remembered the conversation I'd had with Abe earlier. _"Ahhh Belikov, he's a good man… …about your age is he not?" _Or something like that anyway. "But he doesn't have to be!"

I stood up quickly and hugged Mason and Viktoria very tightly saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you." The flew out the door back to my own rooms.

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**Please leave a review, especially if you have ideas about what you think should happen...**

**And I am still looking for a beta if anyone is interested.**

**Thank you for reading.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm sorry for the really long wait, _again_. But I had to rewrite this 4 or 5 times before I was happy with it, so here it is...**

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**CHAPTER 9**

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MASON

It took me a moment to get my bearings when I woke up after Rose had come to talk to me. Viktoria was asleep next to me, her head on my chest. I softly ran my fingers through her beautiful, soft hair as I thought about last night. I never thought I would ever have a sister. I mean, I always wanted one, but I never thought I would have one, and I certainly never even began to think about having a sister come to me with guy troubles. Though it had been quite comical.

Rose had looked so flustered when I'd opened the door. And the look on her face when she thought about what Viktoria and I had just been doing, that had been priceless. Though we had made up for the interruption after she left.

As I lay in bed with Viktoria wrapped around me, I found myself hoping she did get together with Belikov. I know, big brothers are supposed to be protective and never let men anywhere near there sisters. But I knew Belikov, he was a good man, a family man. He was hardworking, and very caring. Just what I knew Rose needed.

Eddie had told me about how the man had saved our sisters life the other night. Right after he finished telling me about how he was leaving with the Military again. Which I assumed was why he hadn't made any attempts to et to know Rose, or allowed her to get attached to him in any way; he was afraid of not coming home. I suppose it made sense, he was leaving in a week or so and didn't want to make it any harder than it had to be on anyone if he didn't come back. But he promised Abe and I that this would be the last time. I hoped he was telling the truth.

I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't even realise Vika had woken up. I didn't notice until she pulled herself up on top of me and started talking to me.

"What are you thinking about so hard this early in the morning?" She asked before ducking her head to lay soft kisses around my neck. I moaned softly at the feeling and clapped my hands on her lower back before replying.

"Rose and your brother actually." She looked up from my neck.

"I kind of hope those two get together." A grim appeared on her face as she said her next words. "I mean, I don't know about Rose, but I know it's about time my brother got laid. Maybe Rose could do it in such a way that she manages to get the stick out of his arse and get him to loosen up a little." She chuckles as I cringed at the thought. I hadn't known Rose for long, but she was still my sister, and that was something I didn't really wish to think about.

I rolled the two of us over so I was on top of Viktoria, and lowered myself down to whisper in her ear.

"And to think the things I was planning to do to you this morning. Before you put the image of your brother screwing my sister into my head." She just laughed at me and tugged my hair so she could kiss me.

It was an amazing kiss, one Vika obviously intended to take further, but I pulled away before she could do that.

"Uh-uh, I have to go talk to my father, and you have to go home before your brother starts getting annoyed with me.

Half an hour later a found myself knocking on the door to Abe's office and being told to come in quietly. As i walked in I noticed he was on the phone to someone, and he didn't sound particularly happy either. After ten minutes I decided it must be my mother, judging by the shouting coming from the other end of the line and the requests Abe was making. It sounded like he was asking her to pack up some things and send them over. Well, Pavel would probably accompany the private jet to go an collect them but still, same thing. After a further fifteen minutes, Abe slammed the phone down and turned calmly to me with is eyebrows raised is a questioning way.

"What can I do for you Mason?" He asked in quiet, and friendly tone.

"I can to asked you opinion on something, and probably your help as well." His eyebrows rose further, telling me to carry on.

"What do you know about Rose's ahhh… Mental state?" I wasn't sure I had worded it right, but Abe obviously understood. He sighed and lent back into his chair.

"Her mother told me she had gone off the rails for a while, which leads me to believe that it's not good, but other than that, not a lot I'm afraid. Why do you ask?" That was a good question. _Why was I asking? _

"She came to me the first night she was hear, cried her heart out before falling asleep. I figured she just missed her mother. But then I heard from Eddie yesterday that she nearly killed herself the other night." Abe's facial expression turned to one of shock, he obviously wasn't expecting me to say that.

"Nearly?" He managed to choke out.

"Yeah, Belikov found her and took the knife apparently, Eddie said, she went for her femoral artery, according to him it looked like she would have just about hit it before Belikov ran in and ripped the blade away." Somehow Abe managed to look even more shocked.

"He saved her life?" His voice was deathly quiet. I simply nodded. "What about Eddie? How did you see it but no do anything?"

"Eddie said he saw Belikov running into a corner into the stable shouting her name, but the time he got there she was kicking and screaming, thrashing around, giving Belikov a hell of a time. He saw the bottle of scotch up against the wall and the knife a few metres away, she just left it to them, stayed out of the way." Be began to look suspicious.

"How does he know Belikov wasn't attacking her?"

"Because he heard them talking later on, Rose was talking about her time in Australia, how her best friend was killed, how she'd tried killing herself before. Apparently Belikov really calmed her down and managed to make her laugh a bit and focus on what she was going to be able to build with us, as a family." He seemed to ponder that for a bit before speaking up again.

"Well explains why he was late the other day, and why Rose vouched for him. I think I need to speak to him. Would you please send him up when you go down. And we will help Rose whenever and however she needs us to. If she is happy to go to you, then please, let her. Be there for her, she will do the same for you I guarantee it. Janine was never the sort to be there for people so that's what Rose will need - someone to be there. And if we need to do more, then we will, but for now that will do." I smiled at him as I got up and thanked him. As I put my hand on the door handle to leave, he called my back.

"Mason?"

"Yes?"

"Next time you spend the night here with Viktoria, if you could please make a little less noise, that would be fantastic, some of us like our beauty sleep." I felt the blood drain from my face as I nodded and quickly left the room. That's our Baba for you, straight and always to the point. But jeez sometimes I wished he wouldn't be, it would have been much less embarrassing if he'd dropped a subtle hint. _Of course not. _

I let my face return to it's normal colour as I hurried downstairs to make coffee and find Belikov. I did hope they would cave with their feelings, which they obviously had for each other, he would make her transition into a new country and new family a lot easier, and I knew Olena would accept her easily. It would be good for her, and probably him too, having someone to enjoy life with; someone who wasn't one of his sisters or his mother or even grandmother. The man had so many women in his life.

I can to the decision that I would simply have to see how it panned out. Leave them to their own devices. For now I would go and send Belikov to Abe so they could talk. _I wish the man good luck, he's going to need it with Abe._

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**Thank you to all you guys who left reviews and ideas last time, I truly appreciate it. Please continue to leave them. I will also try to get up my next update within the next week, I think it's going to be quite interesting. **

**So let me know what you think so far, all of you input is greatly appreciated.**


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

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**DIMITRI**

When Mason came to tell mean Mazur wanted to see me in his office I think my heart might have stopped beating for a few seconds. The smile on Mason's face made me nervous, but he clapped me on the back and told me I wasn't in trouble, yet. That eased my nerves a bit, but he made it worse when he proceeded to take over the work I was doing. _ How long was this 'talk' going to take? _

I slowly made my way to the office and knocked on the door. I expected a 'come in' or 'wait a moment please', but what I got surprised the hell out of me, and I must admit, scared me a little too. After a few seconds, the door flew open and, before I knew what was going on, Abe Mazur pulled me into a tight hug. _ What the hell? What is going on? _

He looked a bit embarrassed when he pulled away from me. But all he did was clear his throat awkwardly and walk back into the office. I followed slowly, even more nervous now.

Abe motioned for me to sit in front of the great desk as he took his own seat behind it and leant forward, looking a little pensive.

"I heard about what you did the other night…" _Oh No. No, no, no, no… _

"Why do you look so scared? You saved my daughters life! Or so I've been told." _ Okay, not quite so bad… But how the hell did he find out?! _

"I, um… Does she know you know?" _ Really? That's the best you could have come up with?! _

"Of course not, and I don't plan on her finding out. And before you start freaking out," _ Bit late for that… _ "I know why you didn't tell me, though I am sure you are wondering how I did find out." He paused for a moment, thinking about what he was going to say.

"Eddie saw you, apparently, and spoke to Mason about it, who then came and told me about it this morning."

"I, ahh…" I was making myself look like an idiot in front of my boss. Not to mention the father of the woman I was hoping to at least get to know a little better.

"Don't fret Belikov, I'm not going to do anything to you, you never know, I might even give you a raise. Then you can look after my daughter in a manor in which she should be accustomed to. She deserves it after putting up with Janine for twenty odd years." Those words shocked me… to the point where I really could barely speak.

"I… what?" Abe just laughed at me.

"I also happen to know that you have taken a liking to her, which, seeing as you saved her life, I have no problems with. Unless, of course, you do something that makes me change my mind…" He trailed off. "But I think she needs someone to be there for her. Someone big and strong who can make her feel safe. And someone who she doesn't in any way think might be obliged to be nice to her."

I understood where he was coming from there, and the statement seemed to bring back my ability to speak like a normal person.

"Of course sir. Anything for her."

I must admit, I was so damn glad to be out of that office and back to work 45 minutes later. Abe had kept me to talk about business and how his horses were going and all the nitty gritty stuff about what was going to be needed in the stables over the next few months coming into winter. It had made me more comfortable to be talking about something I knew about, but I was still uncomfortable in that office. Though I got the feeling I always would be.

I was once again surprised when yet another member or the family pulled me into a tight hug when I returned to work.

"You don't have to be scared of my dad." I smiled as I quickly realised who it was.

"Why would I be?" Rose looked up at me, confused.

"You know with the whole 'Mazur is going to kill me' thing I figured…" She stopped as she saw the smile on my face broaden.

"I must admit, a day or so ago I was terrified, but that was yesterday. Today, he gave me a raise and made me swear I would look after you." She frowned.

"He paid you to look after me?"

"No, he told me, and I quote 'then you can look after my daughter in a manor in which she should be accustomed to'." She stopped with the frown and hugged me tighter.

"Well then, I suppose we should get you working for that raise." She smirked, but before I could reply we hear Mason yell out.

"Rose! Let the man go! Let him get back to work." We both chuckled as Rose let go, and I went back to work, watching as Rose spent time with that Stallion of hers.

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**ROSE**

It had been a week since Dimitri's discussion with Abe, and Baba said the plane with my stuff on it would be here this morning. So I was up extra early so I could feed and brush my beautiful stallion and still be able to catch the plane as soon as it landed out the front. Yes, there was a landing strip right outside Abe's house, there was a hanger for his jet off to the side as well.

I would get my saddle today, with all the rest of my stuff, and I would finally be able to see how Max would go with it. We'd but up a bit of trust between us over the last week, though I wasn't sure that it would be enough. But we'd find out once I got my tack and polished them up a bit.

I'm also excited to get my bed. I put a lot of work into it in Australia. Mase and Dimitri told me hey would help me expand it. They were quite amused when I told them they could watch, and hold things if necessary. I just hoped that they had remember the extra timber, I was going to need it in order to expand it.

"Morning Roza." I heard along with the sound of the big stable doors opening. Dimitri must have seen that Max wasn't out.

"Morning Comrade." I had decided the other day that Dimitri needed a nickname, and, much to his disgust, I had come up with Comrade. And I liked it. He leant on the stall door.

"Are you really going to insist on calling me that?"

"Yep, I sure am. But don't worry, you'll learn to love it." I said with a big grin on my face. He just chuckled and shook his head.

"Whatever you say Roza, whatever you say." He looked like he was going to say something else, so I stayed quiet until he did. Judging by the way he was scratching the back of his neck, I would say he was a bit nervous, but why? "Ahh… Mama told me I need to get our of the house more…" He trailed off, now he was looking at his boots as he scuffed them in the dust. "So I was wondering." He looked back up again. "If maybe you wanted to come out with me?" The hopeful look in his eyes was priceless. I wished I'd had a camera with me.

I stopped brushing Max and looked Dimitri in the eye. I had so many line but I decided now was probably not the best time to play with him.

"Of course Comrade, I would love to. Where are we going?" The smile that brought to his face could have lit up an entire house. But he still looked nervous.

"I was thinking we could take the horses out, or hang around in the stables, or I could take you into town."

"Mmmm, I have to fix up my bed today, and then polish the metal on my tack and unpack the rest of my stuff. You can help if you like, but we can do whatever you would like once I'm done, and it shouldn't take me too long." Dimitri let himself into the stall and made his way over to Max. Running his hands along the Stallion's back, he spoke again.

"That sounds like a good idea, we can come out here afterwards and see if we can get you up on this one." To that I snorted and shook my head. And to be honest I don't think either of us believed what I said next.

"I don't think so. I think there's more chance of me riding you, than this one." I felt the blood begin to drain from my face when I reached halfway through that sentence, but, of course, I couldn't not finish the rest of it.

"Well, you are more than welcome to give that a go as well." I think my heart nearly stopped this time. I looked up and saw him wink at me before turning on his heel and leaving.

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**So there is Chapter 10 for you, please don't forget to review, and once again, thank you to those who have been.**

**Also, quick question; who's point of view would you guys like the next chapter to be in? Rose? Dimitri? Mason? Maybe Victoria? Or even Abe? Let me know.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So here you go, thank you for the feedback. Some of you said you preferred Rose and Dimitri's Point of View, but I decided that this chapter should be in Abe's. So you can get a feel of what he's thinking.**

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**CHAPTER 11**

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ABE

Throughout the day after my chat with Dimitri I couldn't help but wonder if I'd done the right thing or not. I was worried that Rose would see it as me 'paying him off' to look after her. We all knew she didn't need to be looked after. God knows with all the shit she would have had to do with Janine as a mother, I had no doubt she knew how to look after herself. But I also knew that she needed someone to be there for her. I'd kept an eye on her the entire time she was growing up, and I knew she'd snapped a few times. I knew when she put herself in hospital a few times. I knew when she ran away from Janine. And I most definitely knew about the scotch. _At least she has good taste._

What worried me even more though, was how she was going to deal with suddenly having people there for her. How would she react to being surrounded by a loving family for the first time in her life? I'd gotten my answer to that question when Mason told me about her attempt in the stables.

I know I should have been, but I hadn't been expecting that. I'd been expecting her to lock herself in her room, or take off for a few days, and maybe she still will, particularly when she can ride that Stallion. But it scared me when Mason told me about what she tried. I would talk to her about it, but I want her to know that she has a fresh start here. I want her to know that here she can start again, and she doesn't have to drown in the same things she did back home.

And I know she loves that country. She's still got the pictures from her travels in high school. I'd like to take her back one day, back to the North of her home country. With all the red dust and sun. I'd like to take her back to do some work with the park rangers there again; remind of the truly happy times of her life.

But anyway, they were long term plans. At the moment, I had to get up and go meet the plane with my daughter. She was going to get more than she bargained for today.

The wind was cold as it sliced through mu overcoat out to the side of my airstrip. Made worse by the plane itself as it flew past and touched down. As I watched it slow and then turn around to return to the hanger I felt my daughter's presence beside me.

"Morning Baba." She said, wrapping her oilskin clad arms around herself.

"Доброе утро , доченька, как ты сегодня утром?" I asked her, testing her Russian.

"Now is really not a good time for language testing Dad, but I am good thank you." She replied curtly, but still in Russian. Obviously it wasn't too bad a time, if she could fluently speak it. But for the sake of my own head, I switched back to English.

"That's good to here, how was your day yesterday, I didn't really see you."

"That's a good question Baba, but really I should ask you the same thing, Since when do you pay off the stables workers to look after your children?" She looked rather amused, so I wasn't going to go defending myself, unless of course, she started to look offended.

"So I gave the man a raise, it's not illegal. And her deserves it; it's bad enough her lives with five women, and now he's got another one hanging around where he works all the time. I felt terribly guilty." I said light-heartedly.

"Oh so I should just leave him alone then? Avoid the stables while he's around?" She smirked at me; she obviously knew the reason I did it.

"I think that would completely ruin the purpose Kiz." With that comment the amusement left her face, and she turned to pull me into a tight hug.

"Thank you Baba." And that was all she needed to say. I knew it wasn't just about what I'd given Belikov. But it was about what the family had done for her. How we'd given her an escape, somewhere where she could be loved and accepted.

"You're most welcome Kizim." I mumbled into her hair. Here I was turning into a softie with my daughter. But, strangely enough, I found myself okay with being a bit soft for a while. It was new feeling. Sure, I was open and lighthearted with Mason and Eddie, but never soft. I hadn't been soft since before Janine had shown her true colours when Rose was born.

After a minute or two we pulled away form each other and headed toward the hanger, where the jet was currently waiting with all of her possessions, of which I'd heard she didn't have many. And they weren't kidding when they said that.

Pavel greeted us and opened up the side of the jet to reveal a total of around two boxes, a bed, a small car, a saddle stand, a saddle, a few other bits of tack, a cabinet, and a bookshelf, full of book still. I was glad that someone had had the forethought to put rope around the bookshelf to keep the books in place.

Rose made pulled herself up the steps and stroked her saddle, before walking around the space a bit more. She appeared to be looking for something.

"Is there something missing Rose?" I questioned. She turned to Pavel.

"Was there some spare timber and my toolbox?" She had a toolbox? _Oh who was I kidding, of course she did._

"Ah yes, sorry about that. I had to sneak them out, your mother didn't seem to want us to bring them." Pavel turned around and left the space, presumably to fetch the missing items. I heard Rose mutter something under her breathe.

"Of course she would, anything to get me to come back to that hell hole of a life." Their relationship was obviously worse than I thought it would become.

As soon as Pavel returned with the materials we set to work moving Rose's belongings to their appropriate places. Most of it goes to her bedroom, the bed and materials, along with the materials, however, go out around the side of the stables, where she can work on them later today. Soon, the only thing left in the plane is her car.

The car is a small, red Holden Barina hatchback. At least I was pretty sure it was red, it was bit too dirty to really be able. The amount of red dust on the thing was amazing. Which surprises me, since I always thought she was interested in old muscle cars. But I suppose she didn't have much with Janine. We climbed the steps and headed towards the vehicle.

"So this is what you got yourself around in?" My voice sounded a less impressed than I hoped it would. Rose just laughed.

"Laugh it up old man, he's been modified a little since I got him new eight years ago. Janine bought him in 2014 and gave him to me three years later when I turned eighteen."

"When you say modified…?" I trailed off, hoping she would understand what I was asking.

"Let's just say he makes a good rally car. No purring engine or anything like that if thats what you're worried about old man, but maybe he will purr one day. You never know." I chuckled, she just smiled at me and turned to Pavel. "You got my keys?"

"Of course." Pavel dug a set of keys out of his pocket and tossed them to her. She caught them, nodding to him, and turned back to me.

"You want a ride?" I tossed around ideas over what to say next, but finally settled after the idea of being on a rally track made my stomach drop.

"To the garage yes, I'd love one. But no further than that thank you."

"You have a garage as well?"

"Of course I do Kizim." I smiled broadly at her as she opened the car door and got in. I took the opportunity to open the passenger door and slide myself in with her.

"She backed out of the plane through the back door we'd opened to take the bed through, and turned to me for directions.

Five minutes later we pulled up twenty metres away from the six garage doors lined up in a row.

"Second from the right." Was all I said before she jumped out into the wind and opened the door to reveal a single garage which was about 6 metres wide. I'd had them built so that there was enough space to work on cars without being cramped it. The back wall was filled with a couple of benches and some tool racks; all empty waiting for Rose to do what she liked with them.

When Rose returned to the car, she looked at me, almost in disbelief. I she didn't believe this, she sure as hell wasn't going to believe what I had in store for her after we got this… well… interesting, car into it's garage.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course I am Kiz, now hurry up, I've got something for you." Rose raised her eyebrows at me, but shook her head and put her car into gear, pulling slowly and carefully in to the garage.

The second she stopped, I threw the door open and pulled myself out. She followed my lead, but in a a more cautious manner. Peaking at me over the roof as she stood up. I smirked as I moved to leave the garage. She locked her car saying, "I'll be back back Basil," and closed the garage door on her way out. _The car had a name? Sheesh!_

"Baba?" She asked, sounding almost scared as a stopped in front of the last door on the right.

"We, as a family." My sons came running from the house as I began speaking, screeching to a halt at my sides. "Decided to get you a 'welcome to Russia' or even a 'Welcome to your new home' present. And since you're now officially here, we thought now would be a good time to give it to you." Mason took over the speech after that.

"We heard a few rumours about you. Most of which we ignored. One of which you have already confirmed, and one more of which, we really hope is true. Cause if it's not true then we are about to make ourselves look like idiots. But anyway." He handed over to Eddie, who spoke quietly.

"We heard that you liked old muscle cars. Possibly not as much as you love your horses, but still. In particular, rumour had it that you loved Mustangs, XB Coupes, and, of course, the '69 Chevy Camaro. But your best friend claimed the mustangs, and you wanted to rebuild an XB Coupe yourself and give it to a friend, even though you never decided who. So that left you with the Camaro. So anyway, we'll shut up now." Rose's face remained impassive throughout the speech, when her best friend was mention, her face fell a little, but with the mention of the XB and Camaro it lifted again. Her face when Mason walked over to the Garage door, on the other hand, turned cautious.

As the door lifted with Mason's arm, Rose looked like she was about to pass out.

"She's beautiful." Mason had revealed a burnt orange 1969 Chevy Camaro with black racing stripes down the roof and bonnet.

"She's yours." Mason says. Rose quickly turns to us silently asking us if we are serious.

"Of course we are serious Kizim. She is entirely yours from now on, you can do whatever you like with her, though she is in original condition, motor and all." Mason and Eddie walked over to the car, presumable to run their hands along the shiny paint. Once their hands were about an inch away Rose turned.

"Hands off. If she's mine then no touchy for you two should have got in before." She smirked at them and pulled me into another hug, motioning for the brothers to join. We stood their until we could barely breathe then pulled away.

"She could probably tow a float, if you really needed. She'd have more chance than that little red thing, I assume it's red anyway. But if you really need something for that, borrow one of the four wheel drives. But anywho, have fun." The three of us grinned at her and left her alone with her new car, I'm sure we'd see her this afternoon some time. Hopefully.

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**I'm sorry to those of you who aren't car fans, but I couldn't resist. I am a massive car fan and that Camaro is my dream car. **

**And also, I decided that if they talk in Russian, I am going to write it in English. They wont do it that often, but other wise I have to switch keyboards on my laptop every time, so unless any of you are particularly adverse to me doing this (if you are please tell me!), it's what I'm going to do.**

**But anyway, let me know you thoughts. Please don't forget to review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi, Thank you guys for the awesome reviews, it's really nice to have feedback from you. But anywho, here is the next instalment of the story, hope you like it.**

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**CHAPTER 12**

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DIMIRTI

At around eight that morning Mason came to tell me that Rose was currently a little preoccupied and might not come out at for an hour or so. He didn't hang around long, but left me extremely curious as to what Rose was so 'preoccupied' with.

An hour or so later, just as Mason said, Rose came running into the stables. She jumped at me as I turned around and caught her, just. I took a fe steps back to keep my balance, narrowly missing the pitchfork leaning against the wheelbarrow. I'd just finished mucking out my last stall when she came.

"Hello to you too Roza." I chuckled as she loosened her grip on me and leaned back a little. I kept my arms around her waist to keep he from falling.

"I have another baby!" She exclaimed excitedly. _ Wait. What?! _

"Ahhh… What exactly do you mean by that?" I must have had a strange look on my face because she threw her head back and laughed at me.

"A '69 Camaro!" _ Ohhhhhhhh… _

"I see, that would be what you were preoccupied with then." She looked at me curiously, all I had to say was 'Mason' and she nodded and laughed.

We stood there for a minute or two looking at each other before Rose blinked a few times and jumped down from my grasp. I watched as she walked out of the stables, long, brown ponytail swinging at her back. I took in a long breathe before turning and wheeling the wheelbarrow out to the pile and returning it to the shed along with the pitchfork.

I was walking out to join Rose when I heard the distinct sound of an impact drive unscrewing Tech Screws. The woman didn't mess around. As I rounded the corner I saw her jump out of the way as the whole frame fell apart and clattered to the ground. The mattress was lent up against the outside wall of the stable and the timber frame of the bed was resting on a very large tarp. There was an open toolbox sitting a little off to the side next to a pile of flat pine planks. Rose crouched next to the pile of planks and dropped the impact driver into the toolbox. A look of contemplation worked it way onto her face as she looked between the planks and the now flat frame.

"Do you need a hand?" Without saying a word, she reached into the toolbox and threw a tape measure at me. I caught it easily.

"Yes, could you please go measure my other bed frame. Three separate times." Sounded reasonably doable, by why three times? I raised an eyebrow at her, puzzled.

"Measure twice, cut once Comrade. But I usually measure three times, just to make sure." She went back to contemplating the frame and the planks. I decided I wasn't going to get any more from her so I turned and headed in the direction of their house.

I reached the back door I usually used when I was called in and opened it, walking through into the spacious living room. Heading towards the kitchen I was kind of hoping someone would be around since I had no idea where to find her room. Luckily, Mason and Eddie were leaning up against the counter as I walked in. They seemed surprised when they saw me.

"Lost Belikov?" Eddie asked me. I was still fairly sure he had something against me, though I didn't let anything on, just in case I was wrong. I held up the tape measure.

"I was sent to measure Rose's bed frame." I looked at them hopefully. Mason chuckled and put his steaming mug down, pushing off the counter. He turned to Eddie and told him he'd be back then motioned for me to follow him. As he lead me up a flight of stairs and down a hallway I committed the route to memory; just in case she sent me back.

"Here it is."

When Mason opened a door and motioned me through I had to stop and look around for a minute. Viktoria had mentioned Mason's room being massive and made up of multiple rooms before, but since she was talking about it in the context of her sex life, I had tuned her out, not really wanting to hear about it. But I sure as hell hadn't been expecting this. I never expected to walk into a sitting room equipped with couches and all. I snapped myself back into motion when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Vika never told you anything Belikov?"

"No I'm fairly sure she did but I didn't want to hear about my sisters sex life." I muttered in response to Mason's question before following him through to a rather large bedroom. I heard him laugh lightly as a knelt down at the foot of the bed to measure.

"I'm sure you didn't." There was a short silence between us before Mason spoke again. "Speaking of, I heard about my sister's guy issues a little while ago."

"Ohhh, shit. I was kind of hoping she hadn't told anyone." I kelt my eyes on the tape measure, avoiding Rose's brother's gaze.

"Don't worry, you aren't in trouble. Not unless you do it again. If you ever do do it again you'd better have a fucking brilliant reason. That or learn how to disappear from this family. Which no one ever manages to do." I took a breath in and looked the man in the eye.

"Of course, I wouldn't be dumb enough to do it twice."

"Why'd you do it the first time?" I was fairly certain he knew, but just wanted to hear me admit it. I gulped, probably loud enough to be heard by someone in the next room.

"I ahhhh…" I seemed to be saying that a lot lately. " I was uummm… I was scared of your father, and you and Eddie." I said, rather quickly for me. I don't think I'd ever spoken so fast in my life. But Mason didn't laugh like he expected him to.

"I gotta say I sort of understand. Though I've never been up against dad, but when Vika and I first got together I was shit scared of you. And to be honest I think I just about wet myself when she talked about 'having to tell you she'd just had her first time', I was fairly certain you would come and stab me in my sleep or something. I don't I slept at all until you shook my hand and told me to look after her a few days later." He stopped, looking a bit sheepish. I had to hold back a laugh as I replied.

"You know, if I was going to do something, I would have just broken you nose, since _I_ probably would have been stabbed in my sleep if I'd done anything more. But not only did I need my job, Viktoria was so happy when she came running in the door that day. She jumped at me chanting about finally had her first time. And even though I really dint want to know, she sounded so happy that I couldn't do anything other than be happy for her. And when she finally told me it was you, I decided you'd been raised just as well as us, and that she couldn't have picked better. I mean, some of the guys I've had to chase away before… Sheesh."

Mason and I had always respected each other. We'd spent many a day working together in the stables, especially when Eddie was away. I got the feeling that mutual respect was going to get a bit stronger with Rose coming into the picture. He stood there, with an amused look on his face for a while before saying good bye and leaving me to it. I took my last measurement before returning to Rose.

"What took you so long?"

"Sorry about that, I was talking to Mason."

"Of course you were. So, measurements?"

I told her everything I'd measured and she wrote it down on one of the planks. For the next hour she gave me orders to hold something to push something into place as she bolted things back to gather with the wider slats and end boards. By the time we had it upstairs in her room, replacing the previous one, I was working up a sweat. I felt a bit silly since Rose was perfectly fine, but I was putting that down to her being used to working the 40 degree heat in Australia. Russia was usually about 20 degrees cooler.

We dropped the Larger mattress in place and slid the old, kings single metres underneath, just in case. The second we were finished putting on sheets, Rose kicked her shoes off and flopped down onto the bed, patting beside her telling me to do the same. I pulled off my boots and followed orders.

After a few minutes of the two of us staring at the ceiling, Rose turned on her side to face me. I tilted my head to the side before she spoke.

"So Comrade, what are we doing this afternoon?" I reached up to twirl a loose strand of her hair around my finger as a thought for moment before answering nervously.

"Well, Mama said that Sonya and Karolina would be out, and I could probably easily convince Viktoria to spend some time with Mason. So if you like, you could come 'round and I could cook you dinner."

"That sounds like a good idea, but what about Olena? I don't want to take away a night of peace for her." She looked so cute when she scrunched up her face worrying about Mama.

"Mama told me that she would probably be spending the night enjoying that piece in her room, so we would pretty much have the house to ourselves." She thought about that for a minutes before a wide grin spread across her face.

"Can you make Black Bread?" She caught me bit of guard with that one.

"Always so full of surprises aren't you? Of course I can make Black Bread Roza." She sat up and pulled me with her.

"In that case, I will meet you in the stable in and hour or so, how does that sound?"

"Sounds fantastic, I'll see you soon."

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**What did you think? And what do you hope will happen next chapter? Please leave a review.**

**Oh, and all the temperatures are in Celsius, so I apologise to those of you who are used to Fahrenheit.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, sorry it took me so long to write guys, but it's the longest chapter I have written yet. :)**

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**CHAPTER 13**

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ROSE

As Dimitri left my room I got up and knelt beside my bag. I'd lived out of the bag for so long, always ready to leave the house without having to waste time packing the necessities. I couldn't bring myself to unpack now either. Maybe I was still making sure I was ready to leave on short notice, or m maybe I wasn't ready to let myself get comfortable here. Maybe I was still afraid I would be kicked out of the place; I'd always been slightly afraid of that in Australia. It was one thing to leave of your own accord, but to be kicked out was another thing entirely. But now wasn't the time to start analysing my own behaviour. Now, I was going to spend the afternoon with a handsome guy she'd met a few weeks ago.

The strange thing was, I trusted the man. Which was strange for me; I didn't trust people, it was just who I was. It took a lot for me to trust someone. And even then, That trust had to be built, which was no easy task. But with Dimitri, I trusted him fully, which was kind of starting to freak me out. But I suppose I would just have to see what happened. Obviously he was a nice guy, with a nice family. But was that really all I knew? That they were nice?

Once again, I would have to leave it alone for a while and see what developed. I told myself to stop analysing my own life. I was trained to analyse others, not myself, even though that was what I spent half my time doing. But anyway, I pushed the thoughts aside.

I rummaged through my bag, pulling out my AusCam pants and black combat boots I'd bought from an army surplus store a few years ago. I took a quick shower and pulled them on with a pair of long socks, tucking my pants into my boots and pulling them out a bit so they were out of the way and functional. After a bit more rummaging I found a dark green singlet and the button down shirt I had from my Bush Cadet unit in high school. I shrugged them on as well, leaving the outer shirt unbuttoned and left my room.

A few minuted later I knocked on Abe's office door, letting myself in when he told me to.

"Ah, Kiz. What can I do for you?" He asked sitting back inches chair.

"Hey Baba, I was just wondering if I was needed around here this afternoon." Abe's eyebrows shot up.

"Do you have plans?"

"Yes, well, only if you don't need me that is."

"Do I need to threaten someone?" His face turned serious for a moment.

"No! God no! I was going to go over to Dimitri's and spend some time with him…" I trailed off, realising I had just spoken a little to loudly in the office. Abe gazed at me for a second as I stared at my boots, kicking the floor with one of them. He rose from his chair and opened one of the cabinets behind him, pulled a small box out, and closed it again. Then he sat back down in his chair, and looked me up and down. He didn't look convinced at all.

"Are you going like that?"

"I was going to, yes. What's wrong with it?" I asked, almost incredulously.

"You look a bit like you've just come back from a tour." Once again, I looked down at my feet, realising these guys would probably have no idea of what I was talking about. But I responded quietly.

"It's a respect thing." Abe made a puzzled humming sound.

"What do you mean?" I looked up again, hesitantly.

"It's Remembrance Day tomorrow."

"It's what?"

"The day we stop to remember Australian's who fought and died in the wars." His eyes widened when I said that.

"Ohhh… I suppose the two of us see many of the wars from different sides." Of course we would, the man is Turkish. I shouldn't have said anything.

"Yeah I guess we would… Anyway I should get going." I turned to leave but Abe called me back. He held the small box he'd pulled from the cabinet out to me.

"Could you please give this to Olena? Tell her I said thank you?" I took the box from his hands.

"Yeah, of course." I turned to leave again. This time, I made it to the door before Abe stopped me again.

"And Rose?"

"Yes?" I said without turning around.

"I'll come and find you ten past eleven tomorrow." Those words put a small smile in my face. I wondered how he knew the time.

"Thank you Baba." I left the office, small box in hand.

I spent the next half hour or so with Max. Well, I sat in the grass as he wandered around, every now and then coming up to me checking to see if I was still here. I was lying back in the grass with my eyes shut when Dimitri came out. He crouched down beside me so quietly I pulled my knife on him, thinking he was some weirdo sneaking up on me.

"Woah." He let out, putting his hands in the air and calling back on his arse. "Someone's a bit tense." I let out a sigh as I put the knife back in my boot.

"Sorry about that Comrade. I should have known it was you."

"Naaa, your right, now, lets go make some Black Bread. Mason told me you used to trie making it but could never get it right." He said, rising to his feet. I grumbled about Mason talking too much as I pulled myself up from the ground. I gave Max a kiss on his nose before leaving the paddock with Dimitri and heading over to his place.

"What's up with the box?" He questioned lightly when we were about half way there.

"Abe gave it to me to give to your mum. Right after we reminded each other that we were on different sides when it came to most of the wars." I added the last part quietly.

"It may be a stupid question, but how did that come up in conversation?"

"He questioned my choice of attire, I told him it was a respect thing, he was confused, I told him it was remembrance day tomorrow, then it sort of got a bit weird. Though he did say he'd meet me at ten past eleven tomorrow, so that's sort of a good thing, I think." We talked for another ten minutes or so until we reached his doorstep.

The house was smaller than I expected. It looked kind of cosy. There was two stories, and judging by the windows I could see, their bedrooms were mostly upstairs. Dimitri opened the door and stood aside to let me in. Wiping my boots on the doormat, I stepped through the doorway. The inside of the house was beautiful. It looked lived in and loved. And homey. The moment you walked in you felt like you had stepped into the home of an incredibly loving family. One who got along very well and never had any troubles. I knew very well all families had troubles, but this one didn't show it, at all.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I thought about it. About how amazing it would have been to grow up in a place like this. A place where you felt loved the moment you walked in, no matter who you were. I quickly wiped the wetness from my cheeks as the tears fell, but they came back almost instantly. I sniffled, continuing with my assessment of the place. It was truly beautiful. I was pulled from my thoughts when Olena came out to greet us. She immediately came and hugged me, but spoke instead to her son.

"What are you doing Dimka? The poor girl hasn't been here five minutes and you've already got her in tears!" She sounded appalled, but there was a hint of amusement in her voice as well. Almost like she knew what I was thinking.

"I didn't do anything!" He said defensively. "All I did was let her in and she started crying. I'm sorry." I laughed softly at his response.

"It's okay Olena. This place is just so…" I paused, "…beautiful." I started crying again.

"It's nothing special dear." She said. Dimitri came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me as well, so I was wrapped up between him and his mother.

"But it is." I smiled at her through my tears. "It's a family home. It's lived in and homey and not full of awful memories of terrible fights and blood stains on the tiles and weeks spent wanting nothing more than no longer being alive." The two of them squeezed me tighter as I spoke but afterwards they both spoke at the time.

"Not anymore."

"No, it's not"

I decided not to ask about those words, instead I pulled out of their arms and wiped my tears. Now wasn't the time to be upset; now way a happy time. I time to enjoy what I had around me. When I voiced my thoughts Olena agreed and turned to leave the room after saying goodbye.

"Olena wait!" I said, pulling the box out of the top pocket of my shirt and holding out to her. "Abe said to give this to you, and tell you he says thank you." She smiles broadly and took the box from my hands.

"Thank you very much Rose." She put the box in her pocket and left the room. I was very curious about what was in it, but I guessed I would find out if it was important, or I wouldn't. But I certainly wouldn't go prying about it.

"Come on." Dimitri grabbed my hand and pulled my into the kitchen, where he began pulling things out of the cupboards. I quickly caught on to the fact that he way pulling out ingredients for black bread. He motioned for me to join him at the bench when he had everything.

"From the recipe Mason told me he got from you, and the amount of time he told me you'd tried this, I assume you know how much we need." I nodded to him and set to work measuring out flours and seeds into the appropriate bowls. When it came to putting Molasses into the saucepan with chocolate and butter and a few other things, I noticed he had really Molasses.

"I never had actual Molasses, I always had to use Treacle Syrup." Dimitri turned to me, looking a little shocked.

"Well there is half your problem there Roza, nothing really makes up for lack of real Molasses."

"I know it sucked."

When we finally had a dough and had let it rest for fifteen minutes I took the owl off the top of it and stepped aside to let Dimitri work his magic on it. But he told me to, and remained sitting on a stool across the ben from me. So I shrugged, rolled up my sleeves, and set to work on kneading the soft, slightly sticky dough.

After two or three minutes of watch me, Dimitri shook his head and stood up.

"What?" I asked. He looked thoughtful.

"Do you make Pasta a lot?" It seemed like a strange question, but I answered anyway.

"Ahh, yeah… Why?"

"It shows." He walked up behind me and placed his hands over mine. He was awfully close, and I shivered at the contact. But he either didn't notice or chose not to acknowledge it. He did, however, speak rather softly next to my ear.

"You have to be more gentle with bread." He began to knead the bread with my hands under his, and I saw what he meant, when I wasn't directly by the flexing of the muscles in his arms. You had to work it more with your fingers, rather than putting you weight behind pushing it all in together, you had to sort of coax it to do what you wanted.

But lets face it, I was too distracted to be really paying attention to how the dough was being kneaded. I could hear his soft breathing, and watched as his muscles flexed with every movement he made. My cheeks began to warm slightly as I thought about it.

"Mmmm, I thought I smelt something yummy."

"Oh, hey Mama, what's up?" Dimitri said, still keeping our hands moving with the bread.

"I just came down for water, and to make sure you guys were all good; it was so quiet. But I can see that you're fine, so I shall grab my water and head back to my knitting." She filled a glass and kissed Dimitri on the cheek before heading back upstairs.

"You're mother knits?" It was the first thing either of us had said to each other since we started with the bread dough. He chuckled behind me.

"No she doesn't, but she always says that when she wants an excuse to leave one of us alone."

"Oh." I wasn't quite sure how to take it. "Okay then."

"Don't worry, it's a good thing. It means she likes you." I smiles at that. But my smiles dropped slightly when he stepped away to rinse and grease a bowl. We placed the dough into the bowl and grease the top, covering it with a tea-towel and setting it aside to rise for an hour or so. We moved to the living room to sit down on the couch and chat and get to know each other more. It was only about two in the afternoon so we weren't rushed for time. We sat across from each other, each of us with a glass of water in our hands.

I sat and looked at Dimitri as I remembers that day I kissed him. It was the most amazing felling when he returned the gesture. I couldn't stop thinking about ow it felt. I even considered crossing the small space between us and doing it again. Now that I was fairly sure he wasn't as scared of Abe as he was before.

"Roza?" He pulled me out of my thoughts. "What are you thinking about." _Should I? _I looked him in the eye. _ Yes I should. _ I placed my glass down on the table beside the chair and crosses the room to Dimitri, who was sitting in a couch. I took the glass from his hand a placed it back on the same table as mine, causing him to raise his eyebrow.

I quickly decided that if I was going to do this I was going to do it well. I was going to be daring, and hope to hell that he would accept what I was going to offer.

I stood in front of him and put my hands on his chest, gently pushing him to sit back. The eyebrow had dropped now and he looked downright confused, so I smiled brightly to reassure him.

"Roza?" Refusing to give anything away, I stayed silents and just continued with the smile.

Looking down to make sure I didn't put a foot wrong, I placed my knees on either side of Dimitri's legs and straddled him, making sure to keep my boots off the couch. It looked like light was beginning to dawn behind his eyes as he realised what I was doing. I was half expecting him to stop me there and tell me we couldn't, but I was delighted to see a small smile appear on his face. So I decided I'd play with him a little.

"Yes Comrade?" Sitting on his knees, I shuffled closer and put my hands back on his chest, feeling his muscles move as he breathed in and out.

"You-" Before he could say anymore I leaned in and lightly touched my lips to his, feeling that tingling in my stomach again. I pulled back and looked at him expectantly, waiting him for him to finish his sentence.

"You are one hell of a woman." I smirked.

"What did I tell you?" I asked referring to our conversation before our first kiss. "I'm Australian." That caused us both to laugh.

Dimitri eventually wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close, this time initiating our kiss himself. And by jeez was it amazing. His lips were soft against mine and even his rough, calloused hands seemed oddly soft as he moved one to the back of my neck. I reached up and tangled my figures into his hair, eliciting a moan from him.

He ran his tongue along my bottom lip, but before I could grant him entrance we were interrupted by the loud noise of the phone ringing through the house. We pulled apart instantly, but before either of us had the chance to get up, the noise ceased. Olena must have picked it up.

Our suspicions were confirms when we hear footsteps on the stairs and she came running into the room. Seeing the position we were in she stopped, but carried on after a second or two.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt but it's your father Rose, he says he need to talk to you." She quickly handed the phone to me and I took it as she stepped back. I put it up to my ear.

"Baba?"

"Ah, Kiz, hi. Look, you might want to stay with Belikov for the night, if it's okay with them." _ What the hell? _

"Why?"

"I'm not sure it's-" He was cut off by someone yelling in the background.

_"Where the hell is she Ibrahim?!" Oh. My. God. No… _

"I can't leave you there with that Baba! I'm coming back." I got up off of Dimitri's lap. I heard Abe begin to protest but I wasn't going to have it, my mother was there harassing my dad. I'd be damned if I was going to let her continue.

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**What do you think will happen next? Please don't forget to review! **


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14**

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ROSE

I quickly handed the phone back to Olena.

"Thank you very much for allowing me to come Olena, but I must be going, I have an… issue, to attend to." She smiled at me and nodded, understanding that I wasn't going to say much more.

"You're most welcome Rose, you're welcome here any time." I nodded and thanked her again before she left. I turned around to Dimitri, who was now standing. Wrapping my arms around him I softly and quickly kissed his lips and rested my forehead against his chest for a moment, taking a breathe before I left to face my mother.

"Would you like me to come?" He asked quietly. I thought about it for second before nodding, it would be nice to have a bit more back-up. The man in front of me knew just how bad I had been in my mothers care, and how much I was still suffering. I pulled back and he nodded to me. We left the house and as soon as the door shut behind us we too off at a run towards my father's house.

As we reached the back door we stopped to catch our breathe a little. Before we headed inside Dimitri took my hand in his encouraging me to remain calm. But that never happened when my mother was involved.

Once inside we met Mason and Eddie, who came up and hugged me tightly, before pointing us in the direction of Abe's office. Of course that's where they'd be. So that's where we went.

When we reached the office door I stopped, looking up at Dimitri for reassurance. Knowing exactly what I needed, he pulled me into a high hugs, then put his hand on my shoulders and faced me towards the door. I took a breath in, then turned the handle of the door and walked in.

My mother had been pacing the room shouting at Abe who sat behind his desk quiet and calm. The minute she noticed me she came running over with her arms out. Obviously she intended to hug me, but I took a step back and held my arms out in front of me, keeping her at arms length.

The face that had lifted when I walked in fell when she realised I wanted nothing to do with her. She ruined enough of my life already. She didn't talk o me though, no, being the person she was, she turned around and started blaming her problems on Abe.

"How dare you." She pointed her finger at him, but he remained impassive. "How dare you take my child away from me? How dare you take her and then turn her against me." With that comment I couldn't take it anymore, so I interrupted her before she could spout any more bullshit.

"Oh no mother. He didn't turn me against you." She turned to me, looking furious, so I continued, she should hear this, even though she probably wouldn't listen.

"No, you did that yourself mother. You managed that quite well for a single person. You are the one who turned me against you. Did you really think that I wouldn't leave after you left me in an emergency room after yelling at me about leaving bloodstains on your tiles." There were some gasps behind me; apparently Mason and Eddie had joined Dimitri at the door. I'd hoped that they wouldn't hear this, but there was nothing I could do now. So I carried on.

"Did you really think I would stay after you dragged back into that damn house covered in bruises and gashes yelling at me about being inconsiderate and not being able to defend myself. Well newsflash mother! If you'd wanted me to be able to do that you would have had to let me learn! But of course, you wanted me to be defenceless didn't you? You went as far as to make damn sure I was! You wanted me to keep running back to you! You wanted to force me to come running back into your arms. But not even I was desperate enough to do that."

Before I could get another word out she interrupted me.

"You accuse me of so much Rosemarie. You act like you're so perfect! But did you ever do? What help do you ever give around the house?!" I stopped her there. But this time when I spoke I was quiet, I was so angry that I could no longer raise my voice, it was now deathly quiet.

"What did _I_ ever do? I did everything for you. I made sure you ate every night, I picked up after you while you sat around drunk off your arse half the time. I'm sorry mother that every now and then you had to wash your own clothes, or wipe down some kitchen benches when I couldn't move any more. I am sincerely sorry for that. But I was depressed mother, you may not have recognised it, but all I wanted was to die. I desperately wanted an out. And once again, I am sorry that left some blood in the grout of your tiles. But one thing I will _never_ apologise for is leaving. I did everything I could for you, I pulled myself out of bed every morning to drag my sorry arse to school and uni so you could have a daughter with a piece of paper. I worked every night until I could no longer move so you would be comfortable. I ended up in hospital for exhaustion a few times because I worked so hard looking after _you_ and doing what _you_ wanted me to do. So I _refuse _to be blamed for that. I _refuse_ to be blamed for wanting to be a part of a family who could look after _me_ for once in my life."

During my little spiel Janine had back across the room. I don't think I have ever heard her so quiet, even in her sleep she always made noise. I wasn't even sure if she was still breathing. I stumbled back, needing to get out of the room, but before I could get too far I was caught by strong arms wrapping around me.

DIMITRI

I ran forward and caught Rose as she stumbled back. She seemed like she was processing her surrounding anymore. I bent down and put an arm behind her knees and keep the other behind her back. With ease, I picked her up and turned to leave the room when I heard a quiet voice behind me.

"Don't you dare." I stopped and turned back to the woman who had spoken. It seemed she had come out of her shocked state when I picked Roza up.

"I'll be damned if I let another man take away my daughter. No less one from a family like yours Belikov." She spat. She obviously recognised me, that wasn't good. She started toward us, presumably to take Rose back. Before she reach us though, Abe, who'd remained impassive up until now, stood in front of me.

"I wouldn't Janine." He said in a low, almost threatening voice.

"Are you serious Ibrahim? You're just going to let that… that… _stableboy _take her away? He's probably going to take advantage of her while you're distracted." Her words hurt, but I refused to lose my cool. Not when Roza was not with it. But Abe took some of the hurt away with his seething words.

"That _stableboy_ saved your daughter's life Janine. That _stableboy_ saved her when she attempted to _kill_ herself after witnessing a happy family at the dinner table. She saw a family lovingly hug each other and then converse lightly over a dinner table making jokes and having fun and what did she do? And what did she do? She tried to end her life. And why? Because she was afraid that because she wasn't used to doing that sort of thing and because she found it so overwhelming, she thought I was going to send her back to you because she wasn't good enough for a loving family. So she went and tried to kill herself. And this man saved her life." Abe's words were probably not entirely true, but that had the desired effect on Janine, sort of. Her eyes widened in shock again and she stopped trying to get to Roza.

He turned his head and nodded to me over his shoulder. I took that as my queue to leave and did so. As I left the room I heard Abe say one more thing in that low, dangerous voice of his.

"Get out of my sight Janine, get out of my house and get out of our lives. If Rosemarie wishes to see you again she will come to you. Now leave, and don't you dare step foot in this house again. Roza's brothers and I hurried down the hall before the angry woman left the room, just making it off the stairs before she began to descend them.

Janine may have left reasonably easily this time, but I got the feeling this would not be the last we saw of her, not by any stretch of the imagination.

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**Sorry it was a fairly short chapter, but I felt like that was a good spot to end it.**

**Thank you all so much for the feedback you've been giving me.**

**Please don't forget to leave a review with what you think of the chapter or what you think will/should happen next.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi again. Thank you so much to those of you who review and tell me what you think, I really appreciate it; it helps me to continue with the writing.**

**So thank you very much, and I hope you enjoy this particular chapter.**

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**CHAPTER 15**

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**ROSE**

I woke up in silence. Well, there was the sound of someone breathing, but not much more. _Hold up. The sound of who breathing? _I turned myself onto my side, toward the sound. Only to see my very tall Russian… friend… sitting in what looked like a very uncomfortable position in a chair beside my bed.

About the only thing running through my head was confusion. What was he doing here? Why was he asleep in my very uncomfortable chair? Why wasn't he at home with his family? I almost woke him up too, before I started to remember what happened last night or… I looked at my watch, earlier today.

Seeing that it was, in fact, only nine at night I carefully pulled the covers away from myself and climbed out of bed into the chilly air. I quietly grabbed one of my blankets and draped it over Dimitri, doing my best not to wake him. After that, I quickly stepped out of my room and, on silent feet, made my way towards Mason's.

I knocked and walked in when I heard Mase yell out. I closed the door behind me and looked up to see Mason and Eddie sitting on the couches across from each other with worried looks on their faces.

"Hey Rosie." Mason said, standing up to envelop me in a tight hug. "How are you doing?" I looked up at him.

"Did that really happen?"

"Yes… yes it did." I heard Eddie say from behind Mason.

"You heard?" I asked as I pulled away from Mason and moved to hug Eddie. Even though I barely saw him, I was determined to accept him as my brother.

"Yeah, we certainly did." My brothers looked uneasy as we stood around slightly awkwardly. All three of us were staring at our feet, scuffing our boots against the carpet.

I was about to open my mouth to say something when Eddie spoke up. His voice was very soft as he continued staring at his feet.

"You know, I always wanted to meet my mum." I let out a snort at that; Janine is not the sort of person anyone wants as a mother. Though I understood when Mason nodded in agreement to Eddie's statement, I didn't agree myself. I understood perfectly what it was like to grow up with only one parent, but the boys definitely got the better end of the bargain.

"I always wished we could have her here with us, have a whole family living under the one roof. Dad always used to say such nice things about her; he still loves her." I looked at them with my eyebrows raised, mum had only ever storm about Abe if he was ever mentioned, so I just assumed the feelings of hate were mutual. But obviously I was wrong. Mason picked up after Eddie trailed off.

"We are fairly sure he is moving on, but the way he used to talk about her, he was like some love-struck teenage boy sometimes."

"Used to?" Eddie's head snapped up at my question and he took over from Mase.

"He kind of changed after you got here. It's only been a few weeks, but since he found out about that… night, in particular, he's gotten kind of cold towards her. I don't thing he like the thought of what he thinks might of happened when you were in Australia." _If he doesn't like the thought of might have happened then he'd definitely hate the truth about what actually happened… _

We all fell silent for a few moments before I spoke up again.

"What happened? When she came?"

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**MASON**

"What happened? When she came?" Eddies and I went back to staring at our feet and scuffing our boots when Rose asked the question we'd hoped to avoid. I was kind of hoping Eddie would answer her, but he just turned an sat down on one of the couches, resting is head in his hands. I looked up at Rose before sitting as well, indicating for her to follow.

We sat there for half an hour or so, talking about Janine and what happened. How she came bursting into the house demanding to see dad. How she'd carried on about how he had no right to take Rose away from her. How she'd accused him of steeling Ed and I from her. We all knew she was the one who ran, taking Rose with her, but that was all we knew, and she had been very careful about not letting the cat out of the bag with that particular story.

Eddie joined in a couple of times when he felt it necessary; usually when he wanted to elaborate on something I had said. Rose looked a little bit hocked to start of with, but as we carried on, she began to look less and less shocked, and more and more annoyed. When we finished, she actually looked a little bit angry.

"For fucks sake!" She swore, surprising my brother and I a little. "Are you fucking serious?" Eddie and I just looked at each other.

"Ahhh…" We said in unison, not quite sure what to make of Rose's outburst.

"The bitch actually had the audacity to waltz in here and start accusing my father of stealing me? Then proceed to demand that I return to Australia with her. Bloody hell that woman has some nerve." Rose stood up and turned towards my door, mutter a whole string of swear words on her way out.

Eddie and I remained where we were, both of us too surprised to even move. I don't think we'd ever really heard her swear before, sure, we heard one or two words every now and then when she dropped something on her toe, or cut her self or something, but never, _ever,_ like that before. I mean, we'd heard about Australians and their vocabularies, but jesus christ. She had, as they say, the mouth of a sailor. Actually, she was probably worse.

I was snapped from my thought when Eddie said something, not anything particularly intelligent, but something. And it was enough to bring us both out of our shocked states.

"Ahhhhhh…"

"Should we go after her?" I asked.

"I have no idea."

"Do you think she's angry enough to try and go after Janine?" With that question, Eddie was on his feet in no time and heading towards my door."

"Shit, we'd better go after her."

The two of us flew out the door, making a unanimous decision to head towards the garage. Once we left the house we saw Rose jogging across the paddock. Sprinting after her Eddie, being faster than me, tackled her from behind, obviously hoping to get her on the ground. Big mistake.

Rose and Eddie did go tumbling to the floor, only Eddie ended up being held down by Rose.

"Don't you _ever_ do that again. Brother or not, if you do, I will kick your arse." She snarled. _What? _She stood up, lifting her weight off Eddie who was, once again, too shocked to do much. When Rose started to walk again I stood in front of her, stopping her from going anywhere. If she was going to put up a fight, I was going to be ready for it.

"Mason." She said in a warning tone.

"Rose." That was it, she jumped at me. Fully expecting it, I jumped too the side. We exchanged a few punches and kicks before I managed to get a sip at her legs, causing her to tumble. As soon as I saw her fall, I was on top of her, holding her to the ground. I watched as the anger faded from her face, turning very quickly to despair.

It didn't surprise me when she gave up all efforts of fighting back and tears began to fall from her eyes. It did, however, surprise Eddie.

I pulled my weight off of her, sitting myself down on the grass. Rose sat herself up as well and curled into my side. I wrapped my arms around her as she cuddled up against me, burying her face into my shoulder as she shed her tears.

I looked up to Eddie who was standing there staring at us, looking very confused.

"What? Is she…?" He obviously didn't quite know exactly what he was trying to say, but I gave him some reassurance anyway.

"She'll be okay, but can you go get dad please." Eddie still looked shocked, but he slowly nodded before turning and jogging back to house.

I turned my attention back to Rose, stroking the top of her head to calm her down a little bit. She continued to sob into my shoulder for a little while before starting to sniffle a little. Neither of us said a word until she spoke up herself.

"I'm sorry."

"What on earth for Rose?" She pulled away a little but didn't, by any means, let go of me. Looking up at me, she elaborated.

"I shouldn't have lost control like that, and I sure as hell shouldn't have taken it out on you and Eddie. I should have kept my cool." Not quite what I had been expecting.

"You don't need to apologise for that Rose, I think we all understand your reactions. It's not like she wouldn't have deserved whatever you had planned for her." She snorted, at least she had now stopped crying, mostly.

"Understood or not, I still would have been arrested, and probably locked up."

"I would have covered it up for you." We both jumped at Abe's voice behind us. I don't think I've ever seen anyone move as fast as Rose moved when she saw him. The two of them nearly fell to the grass as Rose enveloped Abe in what looked like a very, very tight hug.

"She's going to come back isn't she Old Man?" She sounded so vulnerable, her voice slightly muffled as she spoke into Abe's shirt. The vulnerability in her voice made me feel guilty for my envy of her relationship with him. It kind of annoyed me how Rose could call Abe something like 'Old Man' without bothering him in the slightest, yet if Eddie or I were to say something like that, he'd think it disrespectful, and wouldn't hesitate to let us know. Maybe it was because she was a girl, or because he had missed out on most of her life.

"Knowing the woman Rose, I can almost guarantee that she will."

"Why can't she just leave me alone for a while?" Rose pulled away and looked up at Abe. "Is it really too much to ask for after twenty-odd years?" She pleaded. We all went quiet for a few seconds before she burst into tears again, burying her face back into Abe's shirt. Abe looked up to Eddie and I as we stood awkwardly, and dismissed us with a nod.

As worried as we both were for Rose, I think we were glad that we didn't have to be there this time. I mean, we were both more than happy to give her a shoulder to lean on, but other than that, there was nothing we could do for her, and I think that made us feel guilty.

So we headed back toward the house. Towards the rooms we left when Janine had stormed into the house.

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**So, what did you think? Please tell me. I like to hear you thoughts about what I can do to improve, and about what you did and/or didn't like.**

**Please leave an review.**


	16. Chapter 16

**My sincerest apologies for taking so long to write this chapter. I wasn't really sure of the direction I wanted to take with the story, so I re-wrote it so many times, always unsure as to whether I liked it or not. Anyway, I have now decided, so here you go.**

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**CHAPTER 16**

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**ROSE**

It had been a week since my mother's visit. I know I should have been more affected by it, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Everyone kept walking on eggshells around me. I knew they thought I was somehow more fragile than I was before. Or maybe they'd just realised where I was at. When I say everyone, it wasn't really everyone. Dimitri treated me as usual, which I was thankful for. He understood, at least I thought so. Sometimes it was almost like he knew what it was like. I decided I would have to ask him about it sometime but I was never sure how exactly to bring it up.

I hadn't seen Eddie since the day after, and I don't think Abe has come out of his office. Even Mason was pretty quiet, and Viktoria as well. I couldn't figure out why, I knew I would eventually, but, until I asked someone, or found out some other way, I was determined to carry on as normal. Which, on this particular morning, consisted of sitting in Max's stall doing fuck all.

"Rose." My fathers voice startled me out of my thoughts. I quickly rose to my feet and ran to the stall door to wrap my arms around him.

"Hey Baba." I said sheepishly, stepping back. "What can I do for you?" He produced something from the pocket inside his coat. He passed it to me in silence, waiting until I took what turned out to be an envelope before speaking.

"I just wanted to give you this." He paused. "And to ask you to come up to my office later, when you're done here. I'd like to talk to you about something."

"Okay sure." As soon as the words left my mouth Abe was gone. _O-kay…._

Sitting down on the hay bales in Max's stall I turned the envelope over in my hands. My name was written on it in very neat handwriting. I wondered what on earth it could be. _Only one way to find out._

I opened the envelope. In it was nothing but some lined paper. I pulled it out and unfolded the paper. It was a letter, of sorts. The writing looked meticulous, like someone had sat at a fancy desk agonising over it for hours. I wondered who. My question was answered when I read it. In fact, a lot of my questions were answered.

_Rose._

_Hey Rose, I really wanted to do this in person. I guess you could say I chickened out. But quite frankly, I didn't want to talk to you any more than I had to. Please don't take that the wrong way. It's just that, I don't know when I'll be able to come back. If I'll be able to come back. I didn't want to get too close to you if I was only going leave and not come back to you. If I come home I promise we can spend some time together. Get to know each other. That is, if you want to._

_You've probably been wondering why I never spoke to you. It's not because I didn't like you. Not because I didn't want to accept you as a sister. You are my sister, and always will be. _

_I didn't want to hurt you. Please understand Rose. I am never sure if I am going to come back or not._

_I am probably freaking you out by now. I am in the military. Part of a fairly specialised group within the Russian Aerospace Forces. We do a lot of work with the army. Not many know about us, and I trust you will keep this quiet as I am not technically supposed to tell anyone._

_Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, I am actually working with a few Australians. As for where I am and what I am doing, I can't really say. But I should only be gone for eighteen months or so. Though it could be short if I get injured, or if we succeed early. It could also be longer, if we take more time to get things done. Or it could be forever, if we fail._

_But you should know, we are not the sort to fail. And I've heard the Australians we're working with get pretty pissy if things don't go their way. So we should come home._

_I'm sorry Rose, but I must keep this short. I have lots of training to do with the team before we begin in a few weeks. I do hope to see you again. But I can never be sure, and I refuse to give you false hope._

_I am so very sorry for never getting to know you._

_Your Brother_

_Eddie._

I was utterly speechless. I really had no idea what to do. I mean, I couldn't very well go and talk to him or give him a hug. Which is what I wanted to do. It took me about five minutes of sitting there to make my decision. I stood up and marched out of the stable and back into the house. I was intending to go up to Abe's office and talk to him, but he wasn't there. After a quick but thorough check of the house I, was on my way back to the stable. And lucky me I managed to run straight into Dimitri.

"Woah. You okay there Roza?" He put his hands on my shoulders, holding me at arms length to examine me.

"Ahh… Yeah, I'm just looking for Abe. You wouldn't happen to know where he is would you?" Dimitri chuckled and pulled me into a hug. One which I returned.

"I believe he's gone to talk to Mama. Though I wouldn't suggest going over there, I would wait till he gets back." _Uuuuummmmmmmmm… _

"Okay then." I said, a little unsure. He let me out of the hug and pulled me over to an out of the way corner where he proceeded to sit against the way. I followed suit, sitting down right next to him. It didn't take me long to realise that we were in the same place where he saved my life. Something Dimitri figured out a few seconds after me. His eyes widened, almost like saucers.

"We can go somewhere else if you like."

"No no, it's cool." I dug my knife out of my boot and began to play with it. Probably not one of my healthier habits, but, I didn't really care.

"So what's troubling you Roza?"

"I um… I ahh…" I gave up on speech. Instead, I produced Eddies letter and handed it over to him.

Dimitri's face contorted into a pained and sad expression as he read the letter. After finishing it and handing it back to me he swivelled himself around on the ground so he was facing me. He looked like he didn't know what to say, like he was waiting for me to speak first.

I didn't know what to say either. That letter made me realise that I really did want to get to know the people here. I really did want to be a part of this family. But to be a part of the family I was going to have to let them in. But I had no idea how to do that. Maybe I could take them home. Show them the north-west of Australia. Show them where it was that I always felt at home. Maybe I could go see my old school Chaplain when we passed through Perth, he'd help me figure this out.

I looked back up to Dimitri, who was still waiting patiently for me to say something.

"I need to go home."

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**What did you think? Please review and let me know. Tell me what you would like to see happen and I'll do my utmost to put it in. Ideas and feedback are always welcome!**


	17. I am in need oh some help

**Okay, I am in struggle town. I am unsure of how to continue this. And to be honest, I am regretting that last chapter. So I am in need of your help. I have been struggling with a next chapter but getting nowhere, hence the lack of update. I have rewritten and reread a ridiculous number of times. But I cannot come up with something that flows. **

**I have a few options. One I can change the last few paragraphs of the previous paragraph and carry on in a different way. There will still be an Australia visit just at a later and more appropriate time. **

**Or, I might be able to carry no if you guys help me with some ideas, though that will probably end with fewer updates and more time in between because I can see the story going in a different direction. **

**So, it's up to you guys. Please let me know what you think.**


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